![]() And so I, too, have chosen a theme that cannot be bypassed today - war." "In his inaugural cantata, 'Die Elenden sollen essen,' he takes up one of the most topical themes of his time - grave poverty. ![]() "Bach was extremely contemporary in his works and also radically topical," Widmann told DW. The opening concert of the 2023 Bachfest was a resounding call for peace Image: Gert Mothes/Bach-Archiv Leipzig Thomas Church: In his cantata for soloists, choir, organ and orchestra, contemporary composer Jörg Widmann takes the baroque form of the cantata and gives it new spirit. To complement it, a new work was commissioned for performance in the St. Bach's cantata "Die Elenden sollen essen" ("The Wretched Shall Eat"), with which choirmaster Bach introduced himself to the people of Leipzig on the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday in 1723, was performed here once more. With outstanding debutants, fresh formats and many a surprising adaptation and reinterpretation of familiar works."Ī commitment to Bach's visions of the future was already made at the opening concert in St. When asked about the relevance of the Bach for Future motto, festival director Michael Maul explained: "Bach's music will be presented in new contexts. "If there is such a thing in heaven as a regulars' table of the greatest composers of all time, at which Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and all the others also sit, the colleagues have certainly chosen Bach as 'chairman,'" Koopman, himself a living Bach legend, added in a DW interview.Īlongside Philippe Herreweghe and other stars of the scene, Koopmann will present his favorite cantatas at the Bach Festival. "Bach is just number one," Dutch conductor and Bach expert Ton Koopman explained at the Bachfest's opening press conference. And in this time he was extremely prolific: He composed a new work for performance every single Sunday. Over the course of a year, he transformed traditional musical forms many times over and creatively developed the genre of church cantata. The ambitious composer astonished his contemporaries with his first cantata cycle. "'Bach for Future' is the motto we came up with because we wanted to show not only that we are looking to the future, but because we want to make it clear that the works Bach composed here in Leipzig back then, 300 years ago, are actually so strong that they are still 'for future' today." Michael Maul opened the 2023 Bachfest Image: Jens Schlueter/Bachfest Leipzig 2023 ![]() "This Bachfest is special because everything is under the banner of this anniversary," Michael Maul, director of the Bachfest Leipzig, told DW. During this time, he composed works that remain some of the most influential and important of all time - including the Passions, the B minor Mass, the "Art of the Fugue" and also the great cantata cycles that are the focus of this year's Bach Festival, or Bachfest. Bach in Leipzig: the greatest of all time?īach worked in Leipzig for the last 27 years of his life. ![]() The 2023 festival opened with "Earth Chaconne" - a 15-minute film from the astronauts of the International Space Station showing a spectacular view of the Earth, played along with the famous Chaconne from Bach's Partita for Violin No. What Bach could not know is that, three centuries later, his music would reach beyond Earth's atmosphere.Īlmost exactly 300 years since he started working in the city, Leipzig is celebrating the composer with their annual Bach Festival. Thomas Church in Leipzig must have seemed like a huge step. For 38-year-old composer Johann Sebastian Bach, his 1723 appointment as musical director (Thomaskantor) in the St. ![]()
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