Frankfurt Bach Concerts

The Frankfurt Bach Concerts are a concert series that has existed in Frankfurt am Main since 1961 . The focus of the program is on the instrumental and choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach .

The cycle co-founded by the banker Hermann Josef Abs currently comprises ten performances per season. Around 650 concerts have been held since 1961. The Frankfurt Bach Concerts have around 10,000 spectators every year.

Since 1981 the performances have taken place in the “Great Hall” (2,400 seats) and in the “Mozart Hall” (720 seats) of the Alte Oper . Earlier venues were the "Hermann-Josef-Abs-Saal" of Deutsche Bank and various Frankfurt churches.

The Frankfurt Bach Concerts are financed exclusively through ticket sales and private funding such as club fees, donations, sponsors and support from the Deutsche Bank Foundation and the Society of Friends of the Alte Oper Frankfurt e. V.

Artist

The Frankfurt Bach Concerts stand for the highest level of performance in the field of baroque music. From the beginning, national and international artists, especially baroque specialists, could be won for the event program, including:

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor), Gidon Kremer (violin), Maurice André (trumpet), Aurèle Nicolet (flute), Heinz Holliger (oboe), András Schiff (piano), Rudolf Buchbinder (piano), Ivo Pogorelich (piano), Peter Schreier (Tenor), Riccardo Chailly (conductor), Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin), Hagen Quartet , Emma Kirkby (soprano), Maurizio Pollini (piano), Heinrich Schiff (cello), Claudio Abbado (conductor), Alban Berg Quartet , Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Sándor Végh (conductor), Sir Georg Solti (conductor), Alfred Brendel (piano), Thomas Hampson (baritone), Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Olli Mustonen (piano), Franz Welser-Möst (conductor), Hilary Hahn (violin), Sir John Eliot Gardiner (conductor), Jordi Savall (conductor), Kit Armstrong (piano), Windsbacher Knabenchor , Julia Lezhneva (soprano), Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor), Anna Prohaska (soprano).

The Frankfurt Bach Concerts are also dedicated to promoting young talent. Every year, in addition to established, younger, up-and-coming artists are included in the program, for example the Ensemble Pygmalion in the 2015/2016 season or the Vox Orchestra in the current 2016/2017 season. In addition, one concert per season is organized together with the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts .

The Frankfurt Bach Concerts award five scholarships each year to university students who are allowed to present themselves in a special concert.

program

The instrumental and choral works by Johann Sebastian Bach and the compositions of forerunners and contemporaries of the Baroque, for example Georg Friedrich Händel, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Johann Christian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann , form the thematic focus of the concert series.

In addition to the "historically and artistically flawless reproduction" of these works, the Frankfurt Bach Concerts place emphasis on the juxtaposition of Bach's work and contemporary compositions.

Particularly noteworthy are a series of world premieres of contemporary works by Johannes Driessler (1964), Kurt Hessenberg (1980), Ulrich Stranz (1980 and 1983), Hans-Jürgen von Bose (1981 and 1992), and Alfred Schnittke, some of which were commissioned by the association (1984), Thomas Demenga (1990), Arvo Pärt - "The Introductory Prayers" (1996), Nicolas Bacri - Double Concerto for Violin and Oboe (2006) and Kit Armstrong - Toccata for Clarinet and Orchestra (2010). Also to be mentioned are (partly as special cycles "Bach and ...") comparisons of Bach's work and compositions by Pierre Boulez (1990/1991), Olivier Messiaen (1991/1992), Igor Stravinsky (2001/2002), Dmitri Shostakovich (2002 / 2003), Witold Lutosławski (2001/2002), Francis Poulenc (2005/2006) and György Ligeti (2015/2016).

Artistic Director

The artistic directors of the Frankfurt Bach Concerts were Helmut Winschermann (1960–1980), Katharina von Bismarck (1979–1990), Alexander Pereira (1979–1984), Dirk Nabering (1990–1994, among others, longstanding director of the Berliner Festwochen and the Albert Concerts in Freiburg ) and Hans Georg Schäfer (1994–2012, inter alia Artistic Director of the Berlin Philharmonic and Bachwoche Ansbach ). Since 2013 the artistic direction has been carried out by the board of directors, advised by Stephan Pauly (also director of the Alte Oper Frankfurt am Main). There is close cooperation with the Alte Oper in terms of programming.

While the focus of the program under the direction of Helmut Winschermann between 1961 and 1980, in accordance with the provisions of the statutes, was still clearly on the compositions of Bach, Bach's contemporaries and his predecessors, Katharina von Bismarck and Alexander Pereira also increasingly have works from the 19th and 20th centuries let perform. As a result, fewer concerts were played that were exclusively devoted to the music of Bach, and there were more concerts in which the music of Bach was not on the program.

Under the influence of the artistic director Hans Georg Schäfer, the Frankfurt Bach Concerts finally concentrated again on the works of Bach or on composers of his time, as well as a shift towards an increased historical performance practice, which still exists today. Examples of this are the appearances of baroque specialists such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner with the English Baroque Soloists chamber orchestra he founded and the Monteverdi Choir (2016/2017), René Jacobs with the Akademie für Alte Musik (2016/2017), Jordi Savall ( 2015/2016), Andreas Staier (2015/2016) and the Windsbacher Boys Choir .

carrier

The Frankfurt Bach Concerts are sponsored by the association “Frankfurter Bachkonzerte eV, founded on May 7, 1961 in Frankfurt am Main”. V. ”founding members of the“ Frankfurter Bachkonzerte ”and the“ Frankfurter Bachkonzerte e. V. “were Hermann Josef Abs , Fritz Dietrich, Klaus Dohrn, Ernst Holzinger, Klaus Jacobs, Gustav von Metzler , Philipp Mohler , Volkmar Muthesius , Klaus Westrick, Helmut Winschermann and Hans Zumsteg.

Members of the current board of the “Frankfurter Bachkonzerte e. V. “are Nikolaus Reinhuber (chairman), J. Nikolaus Korsch (treasurer), Günther Albers, Traudl Herrhausen , Frank-Peter Martin, Elsa Pavel and Alexander Wolf.