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SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL FEATURE
 

Soli Deo Gloria, The Leipzig Bach Festival 2008:  A  special three part  report by Aart van der Wal  - Part Three (AvW)


Part Three: The Music 21st June and 22nd June

 

Motets and Community Singing in St. Thomas’s Church

This  is one of the cornerstones of the Bach Festival: motets and sacred cantatas as part of the regular church service, thus bridging almost three centuries. The mix of professional music making and community singing is a quite remarkable one by its nature, and so it was on Saturday afternoon, June 21st.

The organists Ullrich and Martina Böhme opened the program with Mozart’s Andante and five variations in G major K 501 for 4 hands. I prefer it to be played on the piano, but nevertheless this was fine. It was followed by Johann Ludwig Krebs’ motet “Erforsche mich, Gott” (on verses from Psalm 139). Krebs visited St. Thomas school from 1726 to 1735 and during these nine years he had  organ and composition lectures from Bach. Krebs was one of the instrumentalists in his master’s Collegium Musicum. His impressive talents took him to important organist posts in Zwickau, and later in Zeitzer and Altenburg. Krebs left a substantial quantity of organ and church music.

Johann Christoph Altnickol’s motet “Befiehl du deine Wege” for mixed choir and basso continuo stems from Paul Gerhardt’s 12 choral verses of the same name. Altnickol’s motet may more or less resemble Bach’s motet “Jesu, meine Freude”, but its originality is nevertheless striking. Altnickol was, like Krebs, also one of Bach’s last pupils. He came to Leipzig in 1744 to study theology and music. Bach may well have enjoyed having Altnickol as his personal music assistant: the Thomas cantor was already 59 at that time and he could certainly use some extra hands. In 1748  Altnickol was given  the important post of town organist at Naumburg. Two years earlier the organ builder Zacharias Hildebrandt had delivered a new organ to the St. Wenzel church and the well-designed instrument must have offered Altnickol excellent opportunities.

Gottfried August Homilius’ motet “Die mit tränen säen” for mixed choir (a cappella) is based on two verses from Psalm 126 and has all the virtues of great baroque choral writing. In May 1735 he had come to Leipzig university as a law student, but he also studied composition with Johann Sebastian Bach and completed his organ studies with Johann Schneider, the organist of St. Nikolai’s Church. No wonder that Homilius finally became a musician instead of a lawyer! In 1742 his first appointment was a very important one: he was offered the post of principal organist at the Dresden Frauenkirche.  In 1755 he became cantor and music director of  all  the main churches in Dresden and he made most of this memorable post until his death in 1785. In those thirty years,  he strongly contributed to the sacred repertoire by composing about a dozen Passions, about sixty motets and over two hundred cantatas.

The last work on the program was Bach’s sacred cantata for Seventh Sunday after Trinity “Was willst du mich betrüben” BWV 107. It has been richly cast for soprano, tenor, bass, mixed choir, zink (instead of corno da caccia), two flutes, two oboes d’amore, strings and basso continuo. This chorale cantata was premiered on July 23, 1724 as part of Bach’s second Leipzig sacred cantata cycle (1724-25). For all Sundays and Holy Days when a cantata was to be performed, Bach usually selected the text for the choral part from the appropriate Gospel. Poetical i.e. paraphrased texts were chosen for the recitatives and arias, but not so for the cantata “Was willst du mich betrüben”. Here, the gospel text prevails, with no poetic adaptations, the  reasons remaining unknown. Perhaps Bach did not have a poet at his disposal at that time, or there was just no opportunity to agree on a suitable text frame (Bach had left Leipzig shortly before for a trip to Kothen). The cantata’s basic text was written by Johann Heermann (1585-1647) in the dark period of the Thirty Years’ War and clearly reflects a  solid belief in God, even in difficult times.

The Halle Madrigalists and the Dresden Chappel Soloists appeared to be as outstanding as the principal singers (Jana Reiner – soprano, Marcus Ullmann - tenor and Gotthold Schwarz – bass) in terms of sonic and textual purity.  The vocal sculpting conjured up an air of musical and spiritual celebration offsetting the almost mechanical bombast that so often impairs the musical texture of choral baroque music. Here, these engaging choral works could flourish gorgeously with that special mixture of admirable professionalism, spiritual joy, prosaic serenity and contemplation, all far away from our everyday world. In Bach’s cantata the vocal and instrumental soloists created their own kingdom within the contours of the preceding sermon which had rightly focused on what this cantata was all about: Mark 8, verses 1-9.  A great event, which easily brought up the question how of it must have sounded more than 250 years back, here in St. Thomas’s Church…    

 

 St. Thomas’s Church  ©Bach-Archiv Leipzig/Gert Mothes

Cantatas and a Magnificat by Bach’s sons in St. Thomas’s Church

The Thomas cantor Georg Christoph Billiger has become -  through  time and effort  -  a well reputed conductor, scholar and teacher. Above all he is, like many of his esteemed colleagues, well rooted in authentic performance practice, understanding its fundamentals and knowing how to implement them in practice.  Another asset is his long experience with the peculiarities of the church’s capricious acoustics. These things were  all there in his performance on Saturday, June 21.

The five works presented  were all of great interest: the sacred cantatas “Est ist eine Stimme” Fk 89 by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, “Anbetung dem Erbarmer” Wq 243, “Gross und mächtig, stark und prächtig” Wf XIV/8 by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach and Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft” BWV 50 (left to us in torso), with in between Johann Christian Bachs Magnificat in C major T 207/1.  In short, Bach and his sons again (although it still remains questionable whether Johann Sebastian really composed BWV 50).

Whether it is appropriate or not, most of us will be intrigued by  – albeit rudimentary – comparison between the musical qualities in the works of Bach's composing sons. One of the main questions that instantly pop up is whether they were able to create their own style under the influence of such an authoritative father. Education cannot be entirely repudiated. For Bach’s sons, composing sacred vocal music was presumably their greatest challenge, in and beyond family spheres. It must have been a matter of attaining creating artistic individuality and innovation pitched against equally strong tradition and convention.  There was the fairly inevitable scenario of remodelling and reshaping against the presence of the mighty yardstick of their father’s compositions:  the kind of smouldering conflict that determined their creative output, in one way or the other. Geniuses in their own right, that is what they tried to accomplish.  Their presented works in the concert of Saturday, June 21, proved how difficult that must have been.

Frankly, Johann Christian Bach was the only family member who really broke with the traditional baroque mainstream. He was the most radical, decided to leave Germany to settle in Italy in the summer of 1755. Moreover, he converted to Catholicism. He immersed himself in the Italian liturgical style with its operatic influences, learning his new trade from Giovanni Battista Martini. The Magnificat in C major reveals the tremendous gap between the new stylistic universe he adopted and the still traditionally rooted sacred works of his brothers.

When Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was appointed organist at the Markt Church in Halle in May 1746, he started using his father’s vocal music for his performances, although adapting his own figurative pieces to that model. His sacred cantata “Es ist eine Stimme” (probably written between 1750 and 1755) is very impressively and most skilfully drafted, with two highly contrasting parts and a masterly double fugue (“Alle Tale sollen erhöht werden” – “Every valley shall be exalted”), further enriched by virtuoso arias that require ample technical skills.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Easter cantata “Anbetung dem Erbarmer”  (Wq 243) belongs to his later vocal works which he wrote in Hamburg. It was completed on  January 20, 1784 and heard for the first time a few months later, on Easter Sunday. Unlike his customary practice in Hamburg of  compiling  his figurative pieces as pasticcios from music by other composers, this Easter music is entirely his own, although not each movement comprises wholly new work. The second chorus (“Halleluja! Jesus lebet!”) for instance, is an arrangement of a song he had already published in 1781. The great soprano aria “Sie gegrüsset, Fürst des Lebens!” was already composed for the oratorio “Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu” and the massive choral fugue “Herr! Es ist dir keiner gleich” is an arrangement of the closing movement of the 1749 Magnificat. The choices he made indicate that he must have been very proud of his earlier work. Moreover, the selections prove that he wanted to present himself as an original genius who stood – although transcendently – in the centre of tradition.

However, the most impressive work in the program was the concluding “Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft” BWV 50. In this, a multitude of strands of the traditional musical practice of Central German baroque run together. No-one really knows whether Johann Sebastian Bach was the real author of the piece and there is also doubt about its purpose. Is this a monumental fragment of a cantata, or just a single movement in its own right? Although the piece has been recorded on different occasions (by a.o. Ton Koopman and John Eliot Gardiner) it was a great experience to hear it live this time, and especially in St. Thomas’s Church.

 

 

 St. Thomas’s Church: Georg Christoph Billinger conducts the Thomanerchor Leipzig and the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin in cantatas and Magnificat by Bach’s sons
©Bach-Archiv Leipzig/Gert Mothes

 

It was again amazing how well prepared this demanding program must have been. Each and every strand came alive in a fresh and beguiling fashion. Performing something so hideously difficult in such an almost free and highly spirited manner in this historically important setting made it eminently attractive.  This declamatory expressive music with its complex contrapuntal qualities made a striking impression, thanks to the consistently brilliant contributions of the soloists and the intensely glowing playing of the instrumentalists. The choir was in a league of its own, fully committed to the score and singing with tremendous assurance. Here we also heard Billiger’s vast experience in this repertoire. His conducting came close to perfection, revealing that he could achieve light singing and complete naturalness in a difficult (but familar) setting.

 

Igor Levit: Piano recital

On Sunday, June 22 around noon I attended a quite remarkable piano recital by the Russian pianist Igor Levit (1987 Nizhni Novgorod), in the Old Trading Bourse. The programme was rather unusual, and also different from what had been previously announced (instead of the two Rondos in E flat and A Major, Wq 61 No. 1 and Wq 58 No. 1 by C.P.E. Bach, we had  his Fantasia No. 2 Wq 61). Levit also announced his last minute decision to rank the Overture in French style in B minor BWV 831 as the first piece in the program. The formal part of the program ended with Reger’s horrendously difficult Variations and fugue on a theme by J.S. Bach Op 81.

Levit’s playing exhibits the kind of subtle intelligence that makes all the difference. He can spin a line affectingly and with such great naturalness that it is difficult to imagine that it could have been done in any other way. It is  the logic of his architectural framework that creates ample room for his eminent legato styling (like in the tenth Reger variation), most convincingly contrasting with his pinpoint polyphony. There were more gems to watch: tonal fullness, sustained tensions, great care of apparent surface details, left hand accentuation when it really matters, resisting the temptation of mannered shaping of phrases - as if he had said to himself: “let the music just speak for itself.” That is what we got: an endless natural flow, impressive sound waves, masterly controlled and etched, technically amazingly perfect, without restraint or exaggeration, the eloquently decorative lines in the right hand masterfully shaped, cross-rhythmic transitions superbly placed. Simply said, he possesses all the real star qualities inherent in impeccable taste and musicianship.  He did not present these works as mere perfunctory models, but imaginatively explored their expressive range, elucidating their riches with amazing conviction, as if each and every note needed to be savoured and cherished. In short, a really great recital.

 Igor Levit plays in the Old Trading Bourse - ©Bach-Archiv Leipzig/Gert Mothes

 

The creative richness of Harmonie Universelle in the Old Town Hall

Light and shadow, consonances and dissonances, softness and sharpness, old music in youthful dressing, not a hint of boredom and no dusty music on dusty shelves. The ensemble Harmonie Universelle (Florian Deuter, - leader and violin, Mónica Waisman – violin, David Glidden – viola, Leonhard Bartussek – cello and Philippe Grisvard – cembalo) presents baroque music as if it is a kind of new phenomenon, the ink still fresh. You hear it in a glimpse, no question about it. Authentic styling? Yes, no doubt. The Old Town Hall was literally filled with music on June 22, a warm Sunday afternoon.      

 

 

Harmonie Universelle in the Old Town Hall ©Bach-Archiv Leipzig/Gert Mothes

           

Here everything was about music floating freely, with innate tempi and textural contrasts, nothing forced or overemphasised, the ornamentation uncommonly clean:  the kind of deliciously seducing music making that can create the extraordinary, as in Johann Bernard Bach’s Overture No. 3 in E minor for 2 violins, viola and basso continuo. Or consistently engaging in Johann Gottlieb Goldberg’s Sonata in C major for 2 violins and basso continuo. The audience was overwhelmed by the rapture in C.P.E. Bach’s Trio Sonata in C minor Wq 161/1 (2 violins and basso continuo), and rightly so. The concluding piece, an Overture in G minor (2 violins, viola and basso continuo) by an anonymous composer (it had been erroneously attributed to J.S. Bach and given the BWV No. 170) could not have been presented in more lustrous sound and with a greater variety of timbre. The ensemble’s coruscating commitment was most enthralling.

          

The Festival’s final  performance: Bach’s Great Mass in B minor

Traditionally, the very last work on the Festival’s program is Bach’s Great Mass in B minor BWV 232 for two sopranos, alto, tenor, bass, mixed choir, three trumpets, horn, two flutes, three oboes, two oboes d’amore, two bassoons, strings and basso continuo. It is arguably not only Bach’s greatest achievement, but the greatest of all sacred works ever composed, the final and eternal musical masterpiece of all times and of all peoples.

How little we know about the compositional  process which made this the Opus Ultimum! We are able to follow the start of the project fairly exactly, as Bach intended not to write a ‘missa tota’ (the setting for the entire mass ordinary) but solely the Kyrie and the Gloria. He drafted both movements shortly after the death of August the Strong (on  February 1,  1733), in the five-month state mourning period, during which the performance of any music was banned. This enabled Bach to devote more time to private projects. It was then that he decided to dedicate a sacred composition (the Kyrie and the Gloria)  to the newly elected Frederick August II. By doing so he honoured the new ruler, but at the same time he served his own interest. This becomes clear from his letter of July 27, 1733 to August II, by which he presented both pieces:

Most Excellent Elector,

To Your Royal Highness I submit in deepest devotion the present small work of the science which I have achieved in music, with the humblest request that Your Highness will look upon it, not according to the poor composition but according to Your Highness’ world-famous clemency, with most gracious eyes, and will thus condescend to take me under Your most mighty protection. I have for several years, and up to the present time, held the directorship of music in the two main churches of Leipzig and have endured one and another slight through no fault of my own, which, however, might entirely cease would Your Royal Highness have the grace of conferring upon me a rank within Your Court Orchestra. I propose in most indebted obedience, at each kind request of Your Royal Highness, to give proof of my untiring efforts in composing music for the church and for the orchestra, and to devote my entire strength to Your service.

Your Royal Highness’ ever constant, most humble, devoted servant, Dresden, 27^th July 1733. – Johann Sebastian Bach.

There were problems in Leipzig. Bach’s working  conditions had worsened, disputes with the mighty and authoritative school, church and city counsels had arisen, from which he usually emerged as the loser. With the credentials from August II (he was probably hoping to be appointed as “Kapellmeister” to the Elector of Saxony) Bach would then have been under the protection of the Dresden authorities, eminently strengthening his gradually but unmistakably weakened position in Leipzig.

However, no response to Bach’s letter has been documented. Neither is there any trace of a performance in Dresden of the Kyrie and the Gloria, although it can hardly be questioned that Bach intended to have both complex pieces performed by the very skilled Dresden court orchestra. The recklessly daring horn (corno da caccia) part in the “Quoniam” may have been composed with the horn player Schindler in mind; the demanding solo violin part in the “Laudamus te” with primarius Pisendel, both outstanding musicians of the court orchestra. However, no one can really determine whether or not the work was finally performed in the presence of August II during the church ceremony in homage to the new ruler, on  April 21, 1733.

Anyway, it took another three years before Bach was appointed as “Court Composer to the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony”, after he had taken further steps in his disputes with the unpopular rector of St. Thomas’s School, Johann August Ernesti. At last, Bach had found in Count Keyserlingk a prominent advocate in Dresden.

Bach’s great opus opens with the Kyrie (in three parts). It instantly catches attention by the broadly expressive and complex fugue in “concertato” style, followed by a lovely duet for two sopranos. The concluding fugue is now transformed into the “stilo antico”, a throwback to Palestrina’s austere vocal polyphony.

The Gloria owes its greatness to the fabulous tutti and the colourful arias, whereas a great number of varied instrumental soli could point to the highly technical skills of the musicians at the Dresden court, for instance the brilliant solo violin part in the aria “Laudamus te”, the magnificent flute solo in the duet “Domine Deus”, the cantabile lines for the oboe d’amore in “Qui sedes ad dextram Patris”, but also the great horn and bassoons in “Quoniam tu solus sanctus”.

The Credo is a prime example of exalted inspiration and unsurpassed craftsmanship throughout. Another highlight is the Confiteor, which is grounded on a double fugue that consists of two themes. The Gregorian chant starts as a real cantus firmus, followed by a quint canon between alt and bass , which is finally taken to the tenor part in stretched note values.

Why Bach extended the Kyrie and the Gloria to the setting of the complete mass ordinary, and above all in the final stage of his life (the manuscript score suggests that it was completed in autumn 1749), remains unknown, however. There are more questions than answers: the Lutheran service did not provide for the performance of a “Missa tota”, whereas the final version of the Mass in B minor is too long even for a Catholic High Mass. Additionally, the technical skills required go far beyond those of the Leipzig forces available to Bach. Only a few court orchestras were capable of providing these.

Putting that all aside, Bach proceeded in an economical fashion. He had recourse to his existing works, he could rearrange them. The solemn Sanctus was composed on its own in 1724 already, but the Agnus Dei is a rearrangement of an aria from the sacred cantata “Auf, suss entzückende Gewalt” BWV Appendix 196. The Osanna and Benedictus are parodies of movements from the lost cantata in honour of August I “Es lebe der König, der Vater im Lande” BWV Appendix 11. The real new creations can be found in the Symbolicum nicenum, the real heart of the Mass. They seem to be intended as Bach’s liturgical legacy when, in the setting of the central Crucifixus, Bach recalls the expressive opening chorus of his sacred cantata “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” BWV 12 (Weimar 1714). However, he frames the new arrangement with two harmonically bold testimonies to his later style (Et incarnatus est and Confiteor). But he also reminisces on several centuries of Western musical history with his recourse to the Gregorian-styled cantus firmus .

Did Bach write this major work at the end of his life really with the intention to put it in his drawer? Just to suit the purpose of future generations, hearing the Mass in its entirety? Or was there a different, more concrete reason? The Leipzig Bach Archive found a new lead which suggests the latter supposition. In March 1749, Count Johann Adam von Questenberg, who had his court in Moravia, contacted Bach on some unspecified musical matter (despite all efforts the issue could not be cleared). However, archive research revealed that the count had been a member of a “Musical Congregation”, founded in 1725, a kind of Viennese brotherhood whose members consisted mainly of wealthy music patrons (like the Princes of Esterházy) and a large section of the imperial court orchestra. The society met every year on November 22 in St. Stephan’s Cathedral in Vienna, in honour of their patron saint, Cecilia, to celebrate a musical High Mass. Contemporary accounts tell that this always lasted several hours and was performed by the most famous virtuosos. A two-hour work like Bach’s Great Mass in B minor would have fitted perfectly, all the more so as a “missa” by a Viennese composer performed by the Society in the early 1740s displays many formal parallels with Bach’s Great Mass. This would also make Bach’s decision to complete the work mainly by means of older compositions more comprehensible. Within this scope there would not have been any reason why Bach, the protestant cantor of St. Thomas’s Church, should not have created a sacred work for a private event by a Catholic brotherhood, in honour of the patron saint of sacred music!

The performance on Sunday, June 22, in St. Thomas’s Church under the baton of Sir Roger Norrington left me with some mind boggling. Apart from the lack of real instrumental authenticity (the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen mostly use modern instruments) the overall approach was definitely romantic, with massive choral explosions and crescendi in expressive overdrive.  Norrington’s predilection for outsized expansion diminished the transparency in the multiple vocal lines by the RIAS Chamber Choir, no matter how striking the effect often was. St. Thomas’s Church’s acoustics easily generate a congested sound as it is particularly noticed when seated on the left or right upper wing (less so in the nave). Maybe Norrington did not notice that from his position, although at the rehearsals he wanted to have the first left desks (first violins) preferably closer to him, demanding some further reshuffling of the orchestra later on.

   St. Thomas’s Church: Sir Roger Norrington conducts Bach’s Great Mass
© Bach-Archiv Leipzig/Gert Mothes

Although Bach prescribed two sopranos, the second soprano part is more often taken by the alto. Yes, it saves one soloist definitely, for just one duet. Thus we got the dialogue between the soprano Dominique Labelle and the alto Annette Markert in the “Christe eleison” part. However, a perfect option would have been to employ one of the sopranos of the choir, for instance Ulrike Barth or Madalena de Faria. The daring horn part in the “Quoniam” (played by Christian Dallmann) fared better in the rehearsals than in this performance, whereas the cembalo part (by Beate Röllecke) was sometimes hardly audible. The tenor James Taylor and the bass Yorck Felix Speer suffered from some interpretative restrains in their more demanding legato lines in the “Benedictus qui venit” and “Et in Spiritum sanctum Dominum”. But there were marvellous moments as well, such as in soprano aria “Laudamus te” (with Daniel Sepec’s great violin solo) and the alto aria “Qui sedes ad dextram Patris”, the sounds of the oboe d’amore’s solo most beautifully blending with the voice. Generally said, the arias revealed most of the baroque character of this greatest of all music, sturdily lyrical at times, but with most touching, almost begging grace in the “Dona nobis pacem”, not to speak of the tremendous depth that was reached in the “Incarnatus est”.  At such moments it is the kind of expressive retraction that easily surpasses the rhetorical dramatising that can just make the expansive Gloria just sound over the top.

I should also mention Norrington’s strong communicative powers, not only when he firmly directs his objectives to his forces, but also in his inimitable interplay with the public, as if he wants to involve his audience almost physically in his conducting. Norrington’s gestures are simply underlining his own amazement about the music’s superior momentum.

Despite those critical observations the high voltage, vigour, grandeur and impact of the performance were tremendous. It was the kind of edge-of-seat excitement that made this one of the most spiritual pleasures. 

Musical tourism…

One of the Festival’s great assets are those bus tours which depart almost daily around 9.30 at the main entrance of St. Thomas’s Church. Provided with a lunch package and always with an expert guide at hand you will be taken to all kinds of interesting historic sites in Saxony, with the additional bonus of interesting musical performances at the spot, ranging from organ music on all sorts of historic organs to a cantata in a church in Bach’s birthplace Eisenach. I guarantee you will learn a lot and you return to Leipzig with a heavy load of absolutely new impressions and knowledge. in very good shape, just ready to enjoy the forthcoming evening concert.

Then, there are those many well prepared and thoroughly interesting lectures on Bach, his music and his musical family in the nearby Old Trading Bourse. Musicologists of the Bach Archive, like Andreas Glöckner and Peter Wollny, will take you on their adventurous tour through the baroque period, with audio extracts et al.  Those who do not understand German can rely on excellent translations which perfectly suit the purpose, be it in the bus, at an historical site or at a lecture.

But there is still more to go for, like the various workshops and outdoor concerts, the table talks with performers, the living quarters of Mendelssohn and Schumann, the Bach or city museum, the startling collection of old musical instruments at the Grassi museum, the opera, etc. 

Epilogue: is anything missing?

It is unquestionable that the Leipzig Bach Festival focuses on baroque music, albeit in this edition with side steps to Mozart, Mendelssohn, Rihm,  Reger and even jazz. Its highly attractive mainstream attracts Bach lovers and, for that matter, baroque enthusiasts. Surely, there is nothing wrong with that. To take it a step further in time: the world famous Bayreuth Festival focuses on Wagner’s music, whereas most expensive stage productions are subject to recycling. There is nothing wrong with that either.

The program schedule in Leipzig shows no signs of wear and tear, but offers a high-profile mix of the greatest well-known and much less familiar works from the baroque era.  We might even have the chance to listen to quite remarkable music that was left unattended on the shelves for ages, but which finally got the attention of a scholar, a conductor or a librarian, and often with stunning result.

Old Music, yes, but it still tells us a lot about those composers of the 17th  and 18th  century; and also about their social environment, as they were strongly footed in their time. Baroque music can be provocative and challenging, but at any rate much more than just a school of thought.  Even more, it is fundamental to most people’s understanding of serious music.  So many works from that period not only established a very important landmark in the music of history, but they have also strongly influenced much later generations of composers, ranging from Beethoven and Brahms to Alban Berg and Igor Stravinsky.

The authenticity movement initiated in the 1960s by leading baroque musicians like Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt climbed to unexpected heights in the 1980s and beyond, finally developing into one of the most important cornerstones of the public’s appropriate assessment of baroque music. The implementation of original instruments (factually their replicas) stimulated the rethinking on baroque rhetoric, making Old Music sounding fresh, vivid or even new.

Authentic performers have now reached the point that naturalness has become their hallmark in playing baroque music. The coarse surprises have mostly disappeared, the musicians having gathered expertise and experience, mastering their instrument without losing their ability to surprise. We will never know the true sense of how the music was really played in the baroque era, but we may just rely on the fact that outstanding musicianship delivers to us all the virtues of great articulation, filigree dynamic shading and responsive playing. That is to say with all the imaginable subtleties within the baroque musical spectrum. Or just robustly when it needs to be, or lyrical,  or with skittering virtuosity and great panache.  And all this without those many idiosyncrasies which have dominated the ‘baroque market’ for such a long time.

The Leipzig Bach Festival has made it all clear to anyone who wants to listen. Riveting and contrasting programming together with stimulating, radiant and inspired performances invigorated the sensation of great discoveries, alternating between the extraordinary and the absolutely redeemed high standards of playing and interpretation. And there is much to chose from in the various series: Soli Deo Gloria (sacred music performed at the original venues), Harmonia Mundi (baroque splendour and symphonic sound in Leipzig), For Connoisseurs and Enthousiasts (chamber concerts and night music), Bach out and about (in the footsteps of the virtuoso organist Bach), Familiar Bach (hear, experience, learn about and join in with Bach in Leipzig), BACHmosphere (Bach’s legacy in Leipzig’s subculture, clubs and outdoor concerts), Church and organ music (Bach in his element), Talks and lectures (artists and musicologists talk about Bach).

The Leipzig Bach Festival 2008? So much more than just a lucky shot! The next Festival? It will be held from June 11 to June 21. Then, the central theme will be Bach (of course!), Mendelssohn and Reger. I would be highly surprised when it would not turn out to be a lucky shot again!

With special thanks to Bach Archive Leipzig (Jennifer Bröcher, Wolfgang Ensslin, Andreas Glöckner, Michael Maul, Bernhard Schrammek, Uwe Wolf and Peter Wollny).    

For further information see : www.bach-leipzig.de  

Aart van der Wal  - © July 2008

Aart van der Wal is the Editor of the Dutch classical music magazine Opus Klassiek

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