Inspired by Bach presents cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing the six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by J.S. Bach in collaboration with artists from different disciplines, in a set of six films. THE SOUND OF THE CARCERI explores the deep relationship between music and architecture through a high-tech “virtual confrontation” between the architecture of Giovanni Battista Piranesi and the music of J.S. Bach. Using a striking and highly contrasted visual style, director François Girard places Yo-Yo Ma within a series of computer-generated, three-dimensional recreations of Piranesi’s well-known prison etchings. Through Yo-Yo Ma’s and music producer Steven Epstein’s struggle to recreate and interact with the imaginary space that Ma performs in, THE SOUND OF THE CARCERI examines the complexity of illusion, of representation and reality.
Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach – Suite 1: The Music Garden
Inspired by Bach presents cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing the six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by J.S. Bach in collaboration with artists from different disciplines, in a set of six films. THE MUSIC GARDEN opens the Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach series with an exploration of music as interpreted through gardening on a grand scale. The film follows the efforts of Yo-Yo Ma and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy to create a formal garden, based on J.S. Bach’s First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, in the centre of Boston.
Inspired by the music to reawaken the nature buried beneath the concrete of a modern city, Yo-Yo and Julie are a study in optimism as they set off to convince politicians, financiers, bureaucrats and planners to join in their great dream.
St. Matthew Passion
In 2017 – the year of Luther – Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Gaechinger Cantorey take on Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, the key work of the Protestant church. The exceptional concert impressively documented the new sound and superb manner of playing on historical instruments, which Hans-Christoph Rademann was able to hone in masterfully with the Gaechinger Cantorey over the course of just one year. In its choreographed version of the St. Matthew Passion, the programme offers new dimensions to Bach‘s musical drama. And, for the one hundred schoolchildren who delved into Bach‘s monumental work and learned to dance as an artistic form of self-expression, it was an opportunity to experience the power of his music first hand. The interplay of professional musicians and young amateurs turned into a creative bridge for all involved.
Blomstedt conducts Bach’s Mass in B Minor
Just a few weeks before his 90th birthday, Herbert Blomstedt gifted himself a special birthday present: conducting Bach’s Mass in B Minor, in the Leipzig Thomaskirche – the composer’s former workplace. According to Blomstedt, Bach’s last complete vocal work is the climax of his creativity and is one of the most important works in his life: “It is like a reflection of doubt. It is enormously powerful music in the same way that a wedge is enormously powerful.” For Peter Wollny, director of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Bach’s magnum opus is “without doubt the most intellectually and musically varied and challenging of Bach’s compositions” and “one of the greatest achievements of Western culture.” The concert closed the Bachfest Leipzig 2017 and was performed by the Gewandhausorchester, the Dresdner Kammerchor, and the soloists Christina Landshamer, Elisabeth Kulman, Wolfram Lattke and Luca Pisaroni.
Baroque Duet Battle & Marsalis
In this concert, the two superstars, long time admirers of each other´s work, come together to perform in a dramatically lit setting where the music of Bach, Scarlatti and Händel seems to stand outside of time.
La Casa Dei Suoni – The House of Magical Sounds
This film is both a memoir of the Berliner Philharmoniker director Claudio Abbado´s early years, and a personal introduction to the orchestra. It culminates in a deeply felt introduction to the sections of the orchestra with Abbado leading the Youth Orchestra of a United Europe.
C.P.E. Bach – 300 Years: The 1786 Charity Concert
A concert in celebration of the 300th birthday of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach from the Konzerthaus Berlin. The famous RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik are performing works by C.P.E. Bach, his father J. S. Bach and G. F. Haendel. ——- PROGRAM: C.P.E. Bach · Introduction / J.S. Bach · Credo (Symbolum Nicenum) / G.F. Händel · Arie: Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt / G.F. Händel · Hallelujah / C.P.E. Bach · Sinfonie / Magnificat (Lobgesang Mariens) / Heilig with double chorus. Length: approx. 105′ / 58′ (2nd half) / 43′ (Magnificat)
From Mao to Bach: Zhu Xiao-Mei performs the Goldberg Variations at the Bachfest Leipzig
Zhu Xiao-Mei occupies a unique place in the world of music: The program of her rare appearances is limited to a few works which are for her like “mountains of the soul”. Her famous recording of the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach, whom she described as the “reincarnation of a great Chinese sage,” has led the artist to her international breakthrough.
Mass in B minor
In Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church, Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan perform Bach’s Opus summum: the Mass in B minor, which marks the 2023 Bach Festival’s festive closing. They are joined by an excellent ensemble of soloists who perform the arias as well as the choral parts together with the chorus of the Bach Collegium Japan.
St. John Passion
In 2024, J. S. Bach’s “St John Passion” celebrates 300 years since its creation. To celebrate this milestone, the Thomanerchor and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Thomaskantor Andreas Reize present the masterpiece at St. Thomas Church Leipzig in its original version, together with a star cast of soloists and Julian Prégardien as the evangelist.