Pre-Christmas stories and music on the first Advent

The Achstetter church concert series invited people to a pre-Christmas hour by candlelight. In the icy weather, almost 50 visitors listened to the gripping stories told by Anke Rast-Högerle and her actor colleague Günther Bilsky and, for example, were transported to a lonely, snowy area in Sweden to match the weather with the story of the elk or to an icy one with a landowner Forest, whose life was ultimately saved by a forgotten baby Jesus nativity figure.

Rast-Högerle’s husband Kuno Högerle (trumpet) and Achstetten church musician Andrea Schöttler on the organ sensitively complemented the stories with well-known pieces such as César Franck’s “Panis angelicus”, “Jesus remains my joy” (Bach) or Handel’s “Lascia ch’io pianga”. “, in which Högerle played the melody in ever new variations. In the subsequent “Anglaise” by the same composer, the two brought some festive cheer.

Lesser-known pieces were also on the program, above all a shepherd’s psalm by Oskar Lindberg, in which a restrained melody surrounds a stronger and confident middle section, as well as Högerle’s own arrangement of the well-known Advent song “Maria went through a thorn forest”. “Advent season – a time that makes hearts beat faster,” was how the concert was announced and performed at the beginning. This seemed to be the case that evening, as evidenced by the strong applause at the end of the hour.