les favoris in Marbach With heart, humour and subtlety
Arnd Bäucker 15.10.2023 – 13:19, Marbacher Zeitung
At the benefit concert for “Stückchen Himmel,” “les favoris” thrilled the audience in Marbach as a versatile a cappella choir.
“You have made our cause of the heart your cause of the heart, and for that we thank you!” Melanie Rall from the Förderverein Stückchen Himmel spoke out what certainly many visitors in the Marbach Stadthalle felt. The a cappella male ensemble “les favoris” had made a strong contribution to a good cause with their concert “Love and Other Diseases”, with verve, skill and wit.
At the benefit concert for “Stückchen Himmel”, a day care center for children in the Brazilian city of Aracaju, the artists waived their fees. The donations and proceeds of the evening went to this project, which gives children from slums a good start in life.
A minute of silence at the beginning
Before the concert, the visitors commemorated the victims of the terrorist attacks in Israel and the civilian victims in Gaza with a minute of silence. Dean Ekkehard Graf expressed long-term Christian hope: “We trust that people can meet again as human beings.”
The choir “les favoris” was formed at the Ludwigsburg College of Education. Four tenors and four basses performed in Marbach, and the choir director has been Susanne Moldenhauer for years. This ensemble, eight singers with melodious voices, entertained the approximately 300 visitors with a broad spectrum of songs, chansons, ballads, even classical music was not missing – “Air” after Johann Sebastian Bach, for example. All this seemed light and easy, presented with a lot of heart, humor and wit.
The ode to the homeland
Already at the start, Steffen Aicher parodied the troubles of tying his bow tie correctly. Of course, love was then a big topic, as announced in the title – peppy with the hits “Girls, girls, girls” or “Wrecking ball”, with a wink when love problems were sung about. Like the couple who looked at the sea together and yet lonely. While she gazed at the moon, he coolly lectured on its physical properties. Incapable of relationships – that also sounded in the song “Zärtlich allein mit mir” (Tenderly alone with me), the song of a man in love with himself.
Wonderfully ironic the “Ode to the homeland and to the WLAN”, the last wish of an Internet addict was sighed out: His data should be scattered after his death in a place “where the WLAN connects all by itself…”. The choir showed great skill and sensitivity with “Waltzing Matilda,” the “unofficial Australian national anthem,” according to choir moderator Michael Krüger, a melody with challenging transitions that faded ghostly at the end.
During the intermission, Thomas Zettler, founder of Stückchen Himmel with his wife Junia, provided information about his work in Brazil. From small beginnings of a day care center, in 20 years, with the help of many donors and with a lot of work, a school for more than 200 children has grown, who are fed and taught. Zettler comes from Marbach, he thanked for the help he receives again and again for his project.
Also in the second part, the “Favoris”, accompanied by pianist Jenia Keller, offered the best entertainment. For example, the “Sounds of Silence”, the classic by Simon and Garfunkel, or “My brother makes the noises in the talkies”, also a classic, by the Comedian Harmonists. Solo numbers received the strongest applause. Stefan Müller-Kokot powerfully sang the praises of the deep basses, who would always be reviled as “basement kids”: “We can do much more than just dum dum, dum dum and bau bau, bau bau!” He sounded mightily, “I am the foundation!” – and received thunderous applause.