Georg Friedrich Händel - SAMSON HWV 57

The Stuttgart Oratorio Choir will be holding this year's summer concert in St. Eberhard's Cathedral on July 26, 2026. Guests from Brno, one of Stuttgart's twin cities, will be taking part: the Brno Philharmonic Choir "BESEDA BRNĚNSKÁ" will perform as the second choir in this oratorio. Conductor: Enrico Trummer

Victoria Kunze, soprano
Matthias Rexroth, alto
Alexander Efanov, tenor
Kai Preußker, baritone
Stephan Storck, bass-baritone

For this performance, we have chosen the abridged version published by Peters, which by today's standards is a full evening's length of around 90 minutes. The fact that the work would last well over 3 hours in its full length, that additional soloists would have to be added to the 5 main characters and that this version was never performed by Handel seem to us to be good reasons for the shortening.
The Peters publishing house published this shortened version in German - a concession to the predominantly German audience, who probably attended most of the performances in 1894, the year in which the edition was created. The German language helps to understand all the nuances of the text. For the plot of this "sacred
drama" - Handel himself described his Samson not as an "oratorio" but as a "sacred drama" - is told through a considerable proportion of secco and accompagnato recitatives.
Even though this is a "concertante" and not a "staged" performance, we want to suggest the course of the plot scenically with variable entrances and exits by the soloists and thus make it clearer.
The participation of two choirs contributes to the clarity of the confrontation between the Philistines and Israelites. The Stuttgart Oratorio Choir audibly and visibly takes on the choirs of the Israelites, while our partner choir from Brno embodies the choirs of the Philistines.