Last night was the final event of the BachFest Leipzig 2012–the great Mass in B-minor performed by the English Concert. It was obvious that this was a very familiar and beloved piece to many in the audience. The man sitting next to us “conducted” the whole piece throughout and mouthed all the words to the… Read More The greatest work ever
In all our trips to Germany, we have never been to Berlin, and Carl was bound and determined not to let another opportunity slip by. In spite of the inclement weather, we took a four hour walking tour called “Hidden Berlin” which was excellent in spite of having to use our umbrellas several times during… Read More Hidden Berlin
Two nights ago we heard the St. Thomas Leipzig choir in concert, and last night we heard the St. Thomas New York City sing. I first am surprised that we have heard two American choirs (Valparaiso University being the other choir) at the BachFest. Valparaiso sang a good bit of American music in addition to… Read More St. Thomas NYC
We continued our pilgrimage to the Bach towns by taking a short trip to Köthen today. This is where Bach was in the employ of Prince Leopold of Anhalt Köthen and composed many secular works such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Well-Tempered Clavier. We visited a couple of churches, St. Jacobi and the Marienkirche,… Read More Day trip to Köthen
Last night’s concert with the St. Thomas Leipzig Choir (Thomanerchor)and the Gewandhaus Orchestra featured music written for the 800th anniversary of the founding of St. Thomas, in addition to two Bach cantatas. The juxtaposition of old and new was a little startling, but most people seemed to take it in stride. As usual we only… Read More Of light and peace
It was very cold today (55 deg. F) but we decided to visit Weissenfels, the childhood home of Heinrich Schütz, about 40 minutes by train. When we got there, our first stop was the Marienkirche, which a caretaker opened for us specially, along with two other visitors to the BachFest in Leipzig. Even though Schütz… Read More Visiting Weissenfels
Last night we went to an outstanding concert by the J. S. Bach Foundation based in St Gallen, conducted by Rudolf Lutz. The concert was held in the Evangelical Reformed Church which architecturally is vastly different from all other churches we have visited so far. For example, the front of the church has two main… Read More The period orchestra
Today was overcast, cold and windy, and what better way to spend the time but indoors in a musical instrument museum? On the bus yesterday, the historian who gave us the commentary about the town of Freiberg and Gottfried Silbermann was in fact on the staff of the music instrument museum here in Leipzig. Carl… Read More Unusual musical instruments
Today we took a BachFest-sponsored bus tour to the city of Freiberg, about an hour-and-a-half away. You can see in the picture above that even our bus had Bach on it! The reason we came to Freiberg is that there are several historic organs by Gottfried Silbermann, a Baroque master organ builder. Our first stop… Read More Spectacular Silbermann organs
Everywhere you look in Leipzig, you will see a familiar image, and it kind of reminds me of that old refrain, With a Bach Bach here, and a Bach Bach there, here a Bach, there a Bach, everywhere a Bach Bach …. Today I thought I would share some of my photos so you know… Read More How many places?