Musica Viva's Tour to Germany and Prague a Resounding Success
Concerts in Dresden's Dreikönigskirche, Prague's Municipal House, Leipzig's famous Thomaskirche, and hosted by a local choir in Polditz
 Their name itself is a program: "Musica Viva" – music of life, sometimes sad, sometimes compelling – is what the chorus from New York offered yesterday evening in Polditz.
A good 250 attendees fill the church pews in Bockelwitz/Leisnig. They readily greet the just 30 ensemble members with applause. There's more applause after every number, which is rather untypical for concerts in a house of God. The applause is stronger and longer than expected after spirituals like "Witness" or "Let the Heaven Light Shine." The audience is carried right along with these numbers. In others, they are astonished by the breadth of the chorus's sound. The chorus floats gentle tones nearly throughout the nave. In contrast to that, they perform pieces whose vocal power seems almost enough to blow up the church. It is precisely this breadth, versatility and expressive capability that Musica Viva's 2006 tour program sets out to present. The men and women also perform works by Mendelssohn as well as arrangements of American folksongs and African-American spirituals, which – as shown yet again in Polditz – have not lost their appeal.
The chorus is currently in Europe for the second time since 2004 and in Germany for the first. Besides being here, the chorus also spent time in Leipzig. Today the musicians are giving a concert in Dresden, before they journey on to Prague. The fact that, between the state's chief trade and capital cities, they came to a small town like Bockelwitz, is thanks to Polditz's good reputation as a musical cultural center. "I heard that there was something like this here between these two big cities, and so I made an effort to get a performance date, because I wanted to show the singers something different, something rural," states choral director Walter Klauss in his conversation with the Döbelner Anzeiger.
The world-famous director and organist is clearly enchanted by the hospitality, with which he and his singers were greeted and hosted in Leisnig and Polditz.
While Walter Klauss expressed the ensemble's thanks at the beginning of the concert for the opportunity of singing in Altleisnig Church, the audience thanked the chorus at the end with ongoing applause for this musical event.
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