Nikolaus Schneider: "I become one with good music"

Photo: epd-bild/Michael McKeePraeses Nikolaus SchneiderI love many of the chorales and really like to sing them. However, if somebody asks about  my favourite piece of music, I think of two very different tunes. First of all, there is the slow movement from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano concerto number 21 in C major l - Karl Barth was right, after all, when he said: "The angels would prefer to play Mozart …"

And I also love the song "Killing me softly", which became famous in 1973 through Roberta Flack: "Singing my life with his words / killing me softly with his song" – yes, this is exactly what good music is about. I become one with it. And in many situations it can tell me more about myself than I can. Text: Norman Gimbel (1972), Music: Charles Fox (1972).

Nikolaus Schneider: Born in 1947, pastor in Rheinhausen and Moers, he became Praeses of the Rhenian church in 2003 and Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany in 2010.