ELECTIVE AFFINITY – EVONIK

Evonik Industries have been working alongside the Balthasar Neumann Choir and Ensemble since the start of 2016, enabling the choir and orchestra to undertake musicological research and providing financial support in order for them to examine all the relevant source material and unearth musical treasures from the past. The results may be appreciated in the form of programmes that span the centuries and cross generic borders.

We are grateful to Evonik for their support, for their trust in us, for their courage and for their fabulous friendship.

Review

“The word ‘sponsorship’ was never mentioned at the company’s Christmas concert in the Essen Philharmonie. The Balthasar Neumann Choir and Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock were appearing for the fourth time as Evonik’s guests. From the start of 2016 they will be supported and sponsored under the terms of a new partnership. That this is not just an empty formula hiding behind a particular wording is suggested by the statement that Evonik is supporting the ensembles’ research, allowing them to undertake musicological investigations and providing financial assistance that will allow them to ‘examine the relevant source material and unearth musical treasures’. This does not sound as if it is designed simply to dazzle and impress but presupposes a lasting commitment where spectacular results are not identifiable at first sight: systematically exploring old and new music, working through it in a scholarly way and then presenting it to audiences on the highest artistic level. ‘Power to Create’ is the motto accompanying the Evonik logo – here it is transferred to the world of music.”

WERNER HÄUSSNER, editor and music critic who writes for the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (Essen), Die Tagespost (Würzburg) and Der Neue Merker (Vienna) among others.