"He's doing it again!" Indeed, Vlad Weverbergh did it again: bringing a composer from our region back to life. And this, to my knowledge, for the third time. After Hendrik Tobi (1741-1809) and Hébert Leemans (1741-1771), he now retrieved Ignaz Vitzthumb (1724-1816) from under a thick layer of dust.
Not yet for a concert, but for what he himself called "a lecture". But actually it was a 'try out', an experiment to see whether what he has been working on for three years, whether the scores of a nine-part work that had not been performed for 200 years and which he painstakingly rewrote legibly are entirely feasible.
It concerns the 'Lamentations of Jeremiah for Holy Week' by Ignaz Vitzthumb. Born near Vienna, he came to Brussels as a 10-year-old boy, where he was trained by none other than Joseph Fiocco. As a violinist, conductor and 'entrepreneur' he was the perfect person to shape the Muntschouwburg together with Pieter Van Maldere. One time it resulted in a dismissal, a second time in bankruptcy. This and political involvement made the talented 'maître de musique' a colourful figure, who was allowed to become 92 years old.
Among his Symphonies and Operas, the manuscript of the 'Lamentations of Jeremiah' was also preserved: a work lasting an hour that was entrusted to Terra Nova and the choir 'Octopus' of Bart Van Reyn. It sounded for the first time again in its entirety in the Predikheren, thanks to the City of Mechelen and the Mechelen Conservatory.
More symbolic could not be, because the Predikherenkerk, beautifully restored with clear preservation of its character, is almost as old as Vitzthumb.
Jerusalem
The work is not an oratorio. It fits into the liturgy around Easter. The Latin texts are taken from the Biblical Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. He wanted to warn the people with condemnations and lamentations - think of our jeremiads - that if they did not repent, God would cause Jerusalem to fall and destroy the temple.
The very name 'Jerusalem' ran like a red thread through Vitzthumb's entire composition and was entrusted to the choir. Its intensity evolved from urgent to resigned. The enthusiastic commitment of the almost thirty singers contributed to this. The choral passages alternated with solos by Christophe Prégardien, William Shelton and Door Van Bergen. A fascinating confrontation between an established name like a bell, a French-British countertenor with ties to the Chapel of Queen Elisabeth and the Académie Philippe Jaroussky and a very young promising 'rising star' and winner of Young Belgian Talent 2025.
Revelation
If two experiences linger, then they are the repeated cry 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem' and the velvety yet powerful voice of Door Van Bergen. He did not attend a conservatory, but developed under the wings of tenor and pedagogue Teun Michiels. Only 18, but what natural ease, certainty, presence, 'aisance', fluency, conviction, combined with a voice as clear as flowing water, and a diction like that of a reciter! A son of Kempen whose voice we would gladly hear more of…