origin story
In memory of the theater pioneer Hedy Maria Wettstein, the drama group organizes In cooperation with the Cantonal School Küsnacht, a traveling theater through Küsnacht, which leads through the 800-year fascinating history of the city. At the end of this event there will be a concert in the Reformed Church in Küsnacht.
In the summer of 2009, the Küsnacht Cantonal School commissioned the Küsnacht composer Martin Wettstein (not related to Hedy Maria Wettstein) to write a coherent work for the school choir under Heini Roth and selected instrumentalists from the school. In autumn 2009 the composition was completed.
Ringing myth
Wettstein's composition leads musically through the history of Küsnacht and thus complements the previous traveling theatre. The music begins in mythical antiquity. The endless, windswept Lindt glacier lies mightily over this place, time seems to freeze in the cold. After this prologue Quasi senza tempo, a dragon falls from the sky after losing the fight with the angels and threatens the idyllic place on the young Lake Zurich. Then St. George appears and fights the monster. Defeated again, it retreats to the caves in the Küsnachter Tobel, licks its wounds and sinks into a deep convalescent sleep. Thousands of years later, when Saint George will be expelled from Küsnacht and will no longer protect the place, the dragon awakens again, opens its water-spitting jaws and brings terrible mischief to Küsnacht. The Latin text from the Revelation of John and Caesar's modified "veni, vidi, vici" is symbolic of this antediluvian event.
Evolution of the place name
Küsnacht's identity began with the Roman estate of Cossiniacus - fundus cossiniacus-, which was located on today's common and was known far beyond the region. In the last century of Roman rule, around 400 AD, the Germanic Alemanni immigrated to our area and also settled here near the shore - and adopted the Roman name cossiniacus. Over the course of time, this word adapted more and more to the Alemannic phonetic laws and slowly mutated into modern Küsnacht. Wettstein sets this linguistic evolution to music in a fugato and gives the name Küsnacht another, romantic mutation. He dedicates this part to his wife Brigitte on their tenth wedding anniversary.
The johanniter
From the 14th century the Johanniter shaped Küsnacht. In 1358 they bought the church and in 1411 the building of the commandery was completed - today's canton school. The Latin text, which stands on the foundation slabs of the foundation, floats through the church as a thin, timeless melody. The Johanniter Commander Konrad Schmid (1476-1531) was, along with Ulrich Zwingli, an important personality in the Zurich Reformation; If he hadn't died with Zwingli in the Battle of Kappel, he might have succeeded him. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, who lived in Küsnacht for a while, co-wrote the poem the black horse of the Comtur a great ballad that impressively transforms the initial thrill of victory into the desolation of the returning black horse. The setting of this text forms the end of the cantata, which lasts almost a quarter of an hour.
Premiere of a torso
Actually, the cantata would have been larger, but that would go beyond the scope and possibilities of the current event. Aside from that, a torso can exude a beauty all of its own.
The great rain would follow in 1778: the dragon awakens from its thousand-year slumber and spews water down into the village, partially washing away. The choir mimics the increasing flood of rain. Then an ode to wine would follow with the setting of a wine-loving poem by the young Goethe on Lake Zurich. Vine farming was the main occupation on the shores of Lake Zurich for over a thousand years. One would also be planned strettaabout ABBA's money money as a reference to the current Gold Coast and short contemplations from Carl Gustav Jung - also a Küsnachter - red book. The Johanniter cantata CF Meyer's poem set in sound would then end the Roman fountain, a timelessly beautiful allegory about life.
The Johanniter cantata is the Cantonal School Küsnacht, its Rector Dr. Dedicated in gratitude to Peter Ritzmann and the musical director Heini Roth.