At Easter 2022, I left my previous occupation as a church musician and started new life as a self-employed musician. Shortly before the Easter, I still have many vacation days available, so I travelled to Freiburg, Dresden, Postdam and Berlin for spinett shopping plus visiting my favourite concerts (Schubert’s Winterreise, Bach’s family). I remembered it …
“No one who was there will ever be able to forget the poignant effect of the St. Thomas Boys Choir singing Bach’s St John Passion on Good Friday in 1945, the first year of peace, performed in the beautiful old St Thomas Church, which had been largely spared from the war, but the windows were …
Today I accompanied 3 funerals on the organ. It was a very special day to accompany funeral on 19.12. Around 90% of the funerals that I played, bereaved families wish to have Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Von guten Mächten” (By Gracious Power) at the funeral. This poem is originally written for his fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer-Weller, in …
I am in the chapter 5 of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. The privileged, well-educated and moral-degraded college kids are getting more horrible page by page. I have only read 1/3 of the book, it is still too early to say anything definitive about the book. One thing for sure, Donna Tartt is an extraordinary …
I travelled and spent beautiful time with my little friend last week. Since I gave her Schubert Sound Book last year, she loves it so much that her parents got her Mozart and Bach. So Schubert, Bach and Mozart belong to her very first vocabulary next to papa and mama. The Sound Book series of …
I am very sorry if I have disappointed you, when I talk about Heidelberg without showing you the old bridge, the old castle and the old church. I love the Heidelberg old town, like the whole world does. People from all over the world cross the ocean for just a glimpse of Heidelberg and I …
A blog Ive written on March 23, 2022 received a comment recently. The blog is about a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach Ich habe genug, BWV 82. The memories of when and where Ive heard this cantata in concert come back to me, summer in Stuttgart, Advent in Cologne and winter in Berlin. In …
I love music, but I dont want to use music to feed my vanity; on the contrary, I should starve the vanity in me to death. Furthermore, too much of everything is obsession, and obsession is unhealthy. Also, a life after achievements is an insatiable life. It makes me want for more and left me …
The Four Fictionalized Biography Books by Peter Hrtling: 📚 Schumanns SchattenRobert Schumann (1810 1856) 📚 Liebste Fenchel! Das Leben der Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn in Etden und Intermezzi.Fanny Hensel (1805 1847) 📚 SchubertFranz Schubert (1797 1828) 📚 HlderlinFriedrich Hlderlin (1770 1843) I love music and literature, I think, the essence of literature and …
“He (Salman Rushdie) sent us a text about love and art.” Case ScaglioneChief Conductor of the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn David Philip Hefti’s Rhapsody for baritone and orchestra with a text by Sir Salman Rushdie is a music composition (25 minutes) commissioned by Wüttermbergische Kammerorchestra (WKO) Heilbronn. On 21.9.2022 was the world premiere in Harmonie Heilbronn …