Bach Festival

 

Off to Wetzlar! The 86th Bach Festival of the NBG will take place in Wetzlar on September 20th to 25th 2011

…What are you waiting for? Off we go then to Wetzlar! – thus urged Sabine Naeher at the end of her informative article on the 2011 Wetzlar Bach Festival that appeared in the Winter Newsletter (no. 67, pp. 4-6), a re-reading of which we strongly recommend to all Members, coupled with a cordial plea to sign up as soon as possible for this year’s Bach Festival of the NBG in Wetzlar – in case this has not happened yet.

May I call your attention to the following important information:

1. Following the opening concert of the Bach Festival on Tuesday, September 20th, the members of the NBG are cordially invited to a reception (by the City of Wetzlar) in the Wetzlar City Hall, 2 Brühlsbachstrasse

2. The Members’ Assembly on Saturday, 24th September, at 9 A.M. will take place – contrary to what appears in the Festival brochure – in the Lower City Church (Untere Stadtkirche) on the Schiller Square (Schillerplatz).

3. The rehearsal for the Bach Cantata intended for participatory singing at the closing church service (“Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich”, He who gives thanks praises me, BWV 17) will take place on Saturday,September 24th, at 4:30 P.M in the Community Hall of the Hospitalkirche (Church and Deacon’s House) at the Haarplatz/3 Langgasse.
It will be the processional chorale before the church service on Sunday, 25th September, at 9 A.M. in the cathedral. Anyone with choir experience and who wants to participate in the cantata should procure his or her own sheet music, and arrive prepared at the rehearsal: there is a lot to this cantata, which is demanding! Please register with: Dietrich Bräutigam, 13 Hirschgraben, D-35578 Wetzlar; tel. 0 64 41 / 2 10 26 70; e-mail: dietrichbraetigam@evangelisch-in-wetzlar.de

Further information and complete programme:
Tourist-Information Wetzlar, Domplatz 8, D-35573 Wetzlar;
Tel. 0 64 41 / 99 77 55, fax 0 64 41 / 99 77 59; e-mail: tourist-info@wetzlar.de
Internet: www.wetzlar-tourismus.de, www.bachfest2011.de

 

The 86th Bach Festival of the New Bach Society will take place in Wetzlar
from 20th to 25th of September 2011

In May 1772, a young articling clerk (U.S.: legal intern) assumed his duties at the Imperial Supreme Court in Wetzlar, although he was drawn much more to the fine arts than to jurisprudence. He had graduated from his studies in Leipzig and Strassbourg reluctantly, and then only at the urging of his father, who now pressured him to accept the unloved position in the city on the Lahn River. The barely 22-year old articling clerk has, however, literary ambitions; he has just completed the first version of the “Goetz von Berlichingen”, a play in five acts. The Wetzlar sojourn will not enter legal history, but rather much more literary history, as it was there that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe created a literary monument to his ill-starred love for Charlotte Buff with the sensational epistolary novel “The sorrows of the young Werther”. The city reciprocated, in that here each and everything refers to the Prince of Poets – including the 86th Bach Festival of the NBG that, from the 20th to the 25th of September, intends to open a long-neglected chapter of musical and literary history under the motto of “Bach and Goethe”.

Joachim Eichhorn, who has a been a church musician since 1979 and Church Music Director in Wetzlar since 1996, acted from 1972 until 1978 as the assistant to Helmuth Rilling in Stuttgart, and has long entertained the dream of “ once bringing the famous Bach Festival to Goethe’s city”. Points in common between the two “central personalities of German cultural and spiritual life” are, not only the common places of activity of Weimar and Leipzig, but also and especially Goethe’s “enthusiasm for Bach”. It was his friend Carl Friedrich Zelter, the director of the Berlin Singing Academy and who represented for Goethe the irrevocable authority on musical matters, as well as the mayor and organist of Bad Berka, Heinrich Friedrich Schuetz, who had brought Goethe close to the work of the great St. Thomas cantor. The poet’s word on the unequaled greatness of Bach’s music is famous: “It is as though the eternal harmony converses with itself, somewhat as may have occurred in God’s breast, shortly before the creation of the world”.

In accordance with the NBG’s predisposition for mobilising local assets as well as for attracting a few external greats, by now the Bach Festival’s programme indeed offers its very own and successful mixture, which should makes a visit to Wetzlar absolutely worthwhile.

Besides the indispensable concerts with Bach’s key works such as the B-minor Mass, various cantatas, chamber music works and great organ pieces, there will programmes specifically assembled for this occasion, such as “In Carl Friedrich Zelter’s Singing Academy” or “Cantatas from Hessian Bach sources”. That the spoken word should, for once, be presented on an equal footing as the music is only fitting, given the Festival’s motto. Consequently, even the opening concert will include a keynote lecture given by no less a personage as the literary and theatre scholar Dieter Borchmeyer, president of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. Readings from the correspondence between Goethe, Zelter and Mendelssohn, as well as another lecture by the Goethe specialist Hartmut Schmidt, will round out the offerings.

The performance venues have also been well chosen. For the big events, the cathedral easily accommodates 800 guests. Thanks to its architectural diversity, the cathedral is an impressive mirror of Wetzlar’s history. Its organ was built in 1953-1955 by the Hamburg organ builders Rudolf von Beckerath. It was a gift from the industrialist Leitz family to the city and to the Protestant as well as the Catholic communities, which have shared the use of the cathedral since the Reformation. This circumstance is also taken into account by the oecumenical closing church service, which, in addition, includes a Bach cantata for join-in singing. Besides the opening and closing concerts, the cathedral will also house the daily performance “Bach at noon”, which draws not only on various organ virtuosi but again on the audience as well, as it will offer choral movements for participatory singing. Making music with the community is an important concern of Eichhorn’s: “I learned this in Stuttgart! When the listeners are enveloped in sound – the organ from above, the choir and the orchestra from the front, and the community is inbetween – then they cannot do anything but join in with the singing…” The organists of the noon concerts come, incidentally, from the partner city of Ilmenau and from the partner municipality of Erfurt, which constitutes yet another reference to Bach and Goethe, as well as from the Frankfurt Conservatory, where Eichhorn has been teaching since 1993.

A musical start to each Festival day is provided at 10 A.M. by selected chamber music in the Lower City Church (“Untere Stadtkirche”). The well-lit choir of the former Franciscan church, which can hold an audience of about 150, “our most beautiful and intimate space” as Eichhorn enthuses, offers an ideal setting for this event. Early in the afternoon there is an embarrassment of choices, as to whether explore Wetzlar with various (costumed!) city tours and wander on the traces of Lotte and Werther, or whether to join an excursion to Limburg or to Altenberg. Each day at 7:15 P.M. there will be an introduction to the evening concerts. Their venues are the Hospital Church, which merits attention as the only Baroque church in Wetzlar, and the modern Cross Church (“Kreuzkirche”) which is located outside the historic centre and which can be reached via a bus transfer. And whoever still has reserves of strength can experience a “night guided tour” through Wetzlar at 10 P.M. on Thursday, and on Friday at about 10 P.M. he or she can either listen to a night concert with the dream-inducing Goldberg Variations, or be aroused to renewed liveliness by the State Youth Jazz Orchestra. The members of the NBG should not, however, night-owl for too long because, as early as 9 A.M. Saturday morning, they are invited to the Members’ General Assembly.

With this well-thought-through programmatic fullness, care has been taken to insure that no one will be bored in Wetzlar. In addition, several museums such as the Lotte and Jerusalem Houses, the Museum of the Imperial Supreme Court, or the “Viseum”, which as the House of Optics and Fine Mechanics teaches about the city’s industrial history, also provide rewarding visits. And last but not least it is, of course, the charming Old City of Wetzlar itself, with its narrow lanes, the tall half-timbered houses, and the Lahn River that flows around it, that the visitor should explore and enjoy. Let us Joachim Eichhorn enthuse once again: “What is nice about Wetzlar is its intimate scale, and the pedestrian accessibility of all our performance venues. Wetzlar is a small city with charm and history, which in September at the Bach Festival will show its most welcoming side!”
What are you waiting for? Off we go to Wetzlar…

Excerpt from a report by Sabine Naeher

Further information and the programme can be obtained from:
Tourist Information Wetzlar, Domplatz (“Cathedral Square”) 8, D-35573 Wetzlar
Tel. 0 64 41 / 99 77 55, Fax 0 64 41 / 99 77 59; e-mail: tourist-info@wetzlar.de
Internet: www.wetzlar-tourismus.de; www.bachfest2011.de

The next Members’ Assembly of the NBG will take place in Wetzlar in connection with the 86th Bach Festival of the NBG, specifically on September 24th, 2011, at 9 A.M., Lower City Church (Untere Stadtkirche) on the Schiller Square..

 

Further plans for Bach Festivals of the New Bach Society

2011 Wetzlar
2012 Görlitz/Wroclaw
2013 Detmold
2014 Weimar
2015 Leipzig
2016 Dresden
2017 Ansbach

In 2012, the Breslau Bach Society intends to stage another Bach Festival in Breslau on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first Breslau Bach Festival. The NBG has been invited to the event.

 

Bach Festival Leipzig 2012: “.... a new song” - 800 years Thomana

From the meeting of Johann Sebastian Bach with the schola thomana a music historic impuls resulted, which makes an impact far beyond the present day: not only the 800 years lasting tradition of the Thomaner choir, not only the creation and working of Johann Sebastian Bach and not only the reception history Bach’s bloomed, but everything together leeds to the fascination, that sends out rays from the Thomaskirchhof in Leipzig into the whole world. As a higlight in the legislation of Bach and connected to the new in the belief, in the music and in the education the motete “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” symbolizes this favorable constellation.

The Bach festival 2012 illuminates the mandate of Bach from the most diverse historic perspectives, in which center the work of Bach is placed. Starting with Georg Rau (Thomaskantor 1580-1520) to Georg Christoph Biller (Thomaskantor since 1992) lasts the traditional work of the Thomas cantors, that we have put together in the programm of the Bach Festival. Among this is not only a world premiere of the acting Thomaskantor, but you also find new edited and for the first time ever represented works of Johann Schelle and Johann Adam Hiller. World-famous interpreters like Masaaki Suzuki, Marcus Creed, Ton Koopman or The English Concert take you with them in their historic Leipzig performance sites on an discovery tour according to the current “latest song” in an 800 year music tradition.

For the first time ever we introduce our new children-, youth- and family programm “b@ch for us” at the Bach Festival 2012. In the middle there are two concerts of our youth orchestra, members of the music school “Johann Sebastian Bach” Leipzig and the Conservatorio Bologna. A voluminous, playful, instructive but as well amusing program widens the Bach Festival Leipzig to a family event of the very special style.

The advance sale for the Bach Festival Leipzig 2012 starts on October 14th 2011, members of the Neue Bachgesellschaft e.V. may start to purchase tickets already from September 30th 2011. Please contact the office of the NBG.

 

Anniversary season 2011/2012 - 800 years of THOMANA

Prof. Dr. Martin Petzold and Dr. Stefan Altner will publish the representative festival celebration publication 800 years THOMANA. This publication will be completed by the catalog of the year exhibition Jauchzet - Frohlocket! in the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig. For the celebration publication prominent authors could be excited, who spend time on the several themes of the Trias Thomaskirche - Thomanerchor - Thomasschule.

As well the concert season 2011/12 of the Thomanerchor is all about the anniversary. Guest performances with Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium together with solists and the Gewandhaus Orchestra head via Essen, Frankfurt/Main, Dortmund and Baden-Baden in December 2011. The second part of the anniversary tour with the Matthäus Passion goes to Japan, Korea and Great Britain in February/March 2012.

With a festival from March 19th until March 25th 2012, international guests and numerous events the Thomaners celebrate their 800 year ceremony. Shortly before that there will be the world premiere of the film The Thomaners from Paul Smaczny and Günter Atteln (Production: Accentus Music).

In the calender year 2012 on the high church festive days the Thomanerchor will perform five specially ordered works of contemporaray composers as a world premiere (Epiphanias - Sofia Gubaidulina; Easter - Georg Christoph Biller; Pentecost - Hans Werner Henze; Reformation Day - Heinz Hollinger; Christmas - Brett Dean).

The festival week of the Thomasschool is taking place from September 17th until 23rd, and the Thomaskirche celebrates the 800 year anniversary from October 31st until November 4th 2012. Active information go www.thomana2012.de

Uta-Maria Thiele

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