(Wiesbaden Bach Weeks) is a biennial festival of music around

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, the state capital of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

, Germany. It was initiated and has been run by

Martin Lutz Martin Lutz (born 19 May 1950) is a German musicologist, conductor and harpsichordist. He was the musical director of the concert choir Schiersteiner Kantorei in Wiesbaden from 1972 to 2017, and founded the biennial festival Wiesbadener Bachwoche ...

. The city awards the Bachpreis der Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden to an organist who wins the festival's international competition.

History

In 1975,

, a Wiesbaden church musician and conductor of the

Schiersteiner Kantorei Schiersteiner Kantorei (Schierstein Chorale) is a German concert choir, founded in 1962 at the Christophoruskirche in Wiesbaden-Schierstein. The choir performs regularly in the Marktkirche, Wiesbaden, and in Eberbach Abbey. It is known internatio ...

, founded the Wiesbadener Bachwochen as a festival with a focus on the music of

. He also founded a supporting organisation, the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Gesellschaft. Lutz has described Bach's music as rapturous and moving ("mitreißende, bewegende Musik") with a transcendental dimension ("Dimension, die ins Transzendentale weise"), faith turned into music ("Musik gewordener Glaube"). Concerts have been performed by local groups and international guests. Beginning in 1977, an international competition for organists has been part of the festival, with the winner being awarded the Bachpreis der Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden. After Lutz retired from his church positions at the end of 2017, he continued to run the festival.

Concerts and other events are held every two years around November. Each festival has a motto, and events include lectures, chamber music, organ concerts and the organ competition, and large choral concerts. The events are held mostly in Wiesbaden churches, such as the Marktkirche, Lutherkirche, St. Bonifatius and Bergkirche. They have been performed by both local groups and international artists. The motto in 2015 was "Vom Himmel auf Erden" (Of Heaven on Earth), with Fauré's

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

sung by a festival choir conducted by Andreas Großmann at St. Bonifatius, Dvořák's

at the Marktkirche, and Elgar's ''

The Dream of Gerontius ''The Dream of Gerontius'', Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment b ...

'' at the Lutherkirche. In 2017, the motto was "Werk und Wirkung" (Work and influence), presenting among others Bach's Sonatas for violin solo and

Cello Suites The six Cello Suites, BWV 1007–1012, are suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). They are some of the most frequently performed solo compositions ever written for cello. Bach most likely composed them during the p ...

, his cantata ''

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme "" (literally: Awake, the voice is calling us) is a Lutheran hymn written in German language, German by Philipp Nicolai, first published in 1599 together with "". It appears in German hymnals and in several English hymnals in translations such a ...

'', BWV 140, in the series Bachvespern, Beethoven's

Missa solemnis {{Audio, De-Missa solemnis.ogg, Missa solemnis is Latin for Solemn Mass, and is a genre of musical settings of the Mass Ordinary, which are festively scored and render the Latin text extensively, opposed to the more modest Missa brevis. In French ...

sung by the Bachchor Wiesbaden, and Verdi's

and Bach's complete ''

Christmas Oratorio The ''Christmas Oratorio'' (German: ''Weihnachtsoratorium''), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It is in six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance on one of t ...

'', both sung by the

. The 23rd festival ran from 3 November 2019 to 11 January 2020. With the motto "Bach und seine Zeit" (Bach and his time), it opened at the Marktkirche on 3 November 2019 with the cantata '' Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn'', BWV 152. As chamber music, Bach's Sonatas for Viola da gamba and the ''

Goldberg Variations The ''Goldberg Variations'', BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have ...

'' were played.

Ton Koopman Antonius Gerhardus Michael Koopman (; born 2 October 1944), known professionally as Ton Koopman, is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orches ...

Tini Mathot Tini may refer to: *Tiny Internet Interface, a microcontroller that includes the facilities necessary to connect to the Internet *Titanium nitride, an extremely hard ceramic material, often used as a coating to improve surface properties *Tini, Ir ...

and

Klaus Mertens Klaus Mertens (born 25 March 1949, in Kleve) is a German bass and bass-baritone singer who is known especially for his interpretation of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach for bass voice. Career Klaus Mertens took singing lessons ...

appeared with songs and works for keyboard instruments. Schiersteiner Kantorei sang Bach's

Mass in B minor The Mass in B minor (), BWV 232, is an extended setting of the Mass ordinary by Johann Sebastian Bach. The composition was completed in 1749, the year before the composer's death, and was to a large extent based on earlier work, such as a Sanctu ...

, and the choir of the Bergkirche performed Handel's ''

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...

''.

References

External links

* * Stefan Schickhaus
Emotionale Klangwelten um Johann Sebastian Bach
(in German) vrm-lokal.de 2019 {{authority control Bach festivals Music festivals established in 1975 Music competitions in Germany Classical music festivals in Germany