A new life for Hiller’s oratorio “Saul”

Whether as a ten-year-old under the wing of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, as a young pianist holding his own among Cherubini, Rossini, Berlioz and Liszt in the Parisian music salons, as a municipal conductor in Düsseldorf and Cologne or as a music teacher with vision, Ferdinand Hiller (1811 – 1885) always surrounded himself with the most dazzling personalities and left a lasting impression. 

He had a close friendship with Chopin, who raved about his work as “full of poetry and invention”. Schumann is also a long-time companion, and Hiller encourages him to succeed him as Municipal Music Director in Düsseldorf. In 1953, they jointly directed the important Lower Rhine Music Festival there, which Hiller would direct a further 11 times until 1883. 

Hiller lived and worked in the midst of the “greats” of music history. Revered and esteemed by them, he blossomed into a shining artistic personality in the second half of the 19th century. However, like many Jewish composers of his time and later, he fell into oblivion due to the Nazi’s regime. The Kölner Akademie  and its Artistic Director Michael Alexander Willens are keen to breathe new life into forgotten music. In 2021, it performed Hiller’s oratorio “Saul” together with the Düsseldorf Musikverein as part of the project “1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany”. Before that, it is said to have last been performed on a stage in the 1920s. This week, they are busy recording the work in the Deutschlandradio for the first time. The release date is planned for the 2025-26 season. In addition to the Kölner Akademie choir and orchestra on period instruments, the featured soloists are Hanna Herfurtner, Thomas Bonni, Konstantin Ingenpass, Florian Sievers, Johannes Hill and Leon Wepner.