- Singing in a choir is a lot of fun. The words come out of Jakob Knudsen Pedersen's mouth when he is asked what binds the 74 singers in DR Koncertkoret together. The choir turns 90 this week and will be celebrating with several concerts this year and next spring.
Jakob Knudsen Pedersen is chairman of the singers' association. He has been the choir's first tenor since 2015.
If he looks back at the history of the DR Koncertkoret, or Statsradiofoniens kor, as it was called from the start in 1932, today's choir is far more professional than before. Today, the general rule is that you are trained to sing and sing for a living. Even if being a member of the choir is not a full-time job.
- Singing in a choir has become an active option, he says.
Jakob Knudsen Pedersen emphasises that the old notion that if you couldn't be a soloist, you could always sing in a choir no longer applies. Today, singing in a choir has just as much status as being a soloist. Many of the choir members also regularly perform as soloists on the side.
DR's Concert Choir is quite unique. For one thing, it has and has over the years had a size that you don't find very many places. Neither in the European radio stations nor elsewhere. It wouldn't be possible to run a choir of this size and quality without the financial support from DR's public service contract.
From 1972-91 you could hear a bass voice in the choir. The voice is still heard on the radio, as it belongs to the well-known P1/P2 host Helge Baun Sørensen. He also edited a commemorative publication in connection with the choir's 50th anniversary back in the day.
Collaboration with the great conductors from home and abroad went very well back then. For example, the renowned Romanian-born Sergiu Selibidache, who was feared by the orchestra but loved by the choir:
- But you can't be friends with a conductor. The conductor is an authority, not a friend, says Helge Baun Sørensen, who quit singing because it was rather incompatible with having small children.
Rehearsal hours were Monday to Friday 15-18. And since it wasn't a full-time position, you had to have other work on the side. Many were teachers, while Baun Sørensen was hired to speak into DR's microphones in Radiohuset. The choir had its own rehearsal room, the Choir Rehearsal Hall, which was located in a kind of courtyard next to the canteen. He is convinced that social life was more widespread back then than today.
- But the choir developed artistically and harmonised well with the sound of the orchestra. Not something with an ugly chipboard sound. Admission to the choir used to be based more on vocal splendour than on musical skills. So there were far more auditions back then than today. Originally, the requirements were that a soprano had to be able to sing high C and a bass low C. Conductors like Malko and Fritz Busch were already changing the composition by firing older singers and hiring new ones.
Today's singers are also employed on just 10 per cent of a full-time equivalent. Rehearsals are typically in the week of the concert(s), but with Schoenberg's great work Gurre-Lieder, for example, which was recently performed at the Koncerthuset, the rehearsal process stretched over 14 days.
- "Of course, this can cause problems in relation to other tasks," says Jakob Knudsen Pedersen, but the singers prioritise the Concert Choir very highly, just as DR is flexible with regard to other tasks. And it is fixed at least a year in advance when the choir will perform. Many sing on the side in church choirs or as soloists on various occasions.
He currently sings at the Malmö Opera, and some sing in well-known Danish choirs such as Ars Nova.
The official retirement age for singers is 58 years. With the possibility of extension. A long-time member of the choir, Jørgen Ditlevsen, has just retired from the choir after turning 75. However, he sang in Gurre-Lieder.
Neither Helge Baun Sørensen nor Jakob Knudsen Pedersen consider it a problem to sing well beyond the official retirement age. Especially not for the deep voices, while it can be more problematic for the light voices. But here too, there are no exceptions.
The repertoire has changed in the sense that new works have been added, but both past and present singers look forward to singing the great classics like Mahler's 8th Symphony, Bach's St Matthew Passion and Verdi's Requiem.
”Turbo sound” is what Helge Baun Sørensen calls it.
Photo: © Agnete Schlichtkrull