Bachfest attracts choirs from around the world

The Leipzig Bach Archive has located around 300 Bach choirs and Bach societies worldwide. More than 20 of them will come to the Leipzig Bach Festival this year, held under the motto "Bach — We are Family" from June 9 to 19. "The invitation was a great surprise for us," says the founder and musical director of theBach  Collegium de Asuncion from Paraguay, Diego Sanchez Haase.

To make music in Leipzig, where the baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach worked as a cantor at the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) for 27 years, has long been a great dream of the choir and ensemble director. "We are excited and working with a lot of enthusiasm. In the last few weeks before the concerts, we rehearsed three times a week," he told DW.

The Bach Collegium Asuncion, founded in 2008, specializes in the historical performance practice of Baroque music. This is the name given to efforts to reproduce the music of past eras using authentic instruments and historical playing techniques.

At the Bach Festival, Collegium Asuncion will sing and play Bach cantatas in the "Kantate Domino" series on June 15.

'Bach — We are Family'

Lisette Canton, director of the Ottawa Bach Choir is also looking forward to the trip to Leipzig.

She already knows the city. In 2014, the choir, which is one of the best choirs in Canada, was invited to the Bachfest Leipzig for the first time.

This year, the choir will perform two concerts at the Thomaskirche. "To perform at this place of music history is incomparable. It is simply the home of Bach's music," says Canton.

The program for the two concerts includes not only Bach cantatas, but also music by important contemporaries who influenced Bach. The choir will also sing the sacred motet "Das ist meine Freude" by Johann Ludwig Bach, a distant relative of the more famous Johann Sebastian Bach.

Johann Sebastian Bach came from an extended family of musicians who met once a year for a large family celebration to make music and celebrate together.

For the Bachfest, artistic director Michael Maul said the global Bach community is now the new Bach family: "We wanted to try to revive this historical idea, because all over the world people join together in Bach societies and Bach choirs because they are enthusiastic about Bach's music."

Maul actually wanted to implement the idea of the large family celebration in 2020, but because of the COVID pandemic, this major event had to be postponed.

The COVID pandemic leaves its mark

Also this year, not all invited choirs can come to Leipzig because of the pandemic. For example, the Johannesburg Bach Choir had to cancel its trip.

After the lockdown in South Africa, the singers could not meet again for rehearsals until this year. "Because of the uncertainties and all the travel restrictions, it was unfortunately no longer logistically possible to arrange a trip to Leipzig in time," says the choir's Marlene Ross. 

"Especially from Asia and Australia, where the COVID numbers were still very high until the end, choirs had to cancel on us," Michael Maul told DW. Many choirs hardly had time for rehearsals after the lockdowns in their countries.

The excitement is all the greater among those who are traveling anyway. "It's been so crazy with the whole pandemic. We've been planning the program for four years, but we've had to change everything again and again, and now we can hardly wait for it to start," says Lisette Canton from Canada.

Staying flexible until the concert

The Kamerkoris DeCoro from Latvia, which will hold two concerts at the Bachfest, also had to be flexible.

The second concert with a different conductor and soloists was planned only at short notice. "But that's exactly how it should be," choir director and singer Mara Siikavirta told DW. "Bach was a great master of improvisation," she says, adding that the choir now also has to improvise, which makes the whole thing exciting.

After all, the joint rehearsals with guest conductor and organist David Timm and the new soloists cannot take place until the day before the concert on June 10 on site in Leipzig.

The DeCoro chamber choir from Latvia was founded in 2007 by Ainars Rubikis, the multi-award winning conductor and current general music director of the Komische Oper Berlin.

In addition to Bach cantatas, the choir will also perform in Leipzig some works by contemporary composers from Latvia, Estonia and Norway inspired by Bach's music.

Taking Bach's music into the world

Kinuyo Hashimoto, founder of the Soft Bach Society Yamaguchi from Japan, has a special approach to Johann Sebastian Bach's music: "We want to convey through our singing that the strong essence of Bach's music is unchanging."

Hashimoto has also developed this approach in her book "Yawarakana Bach," which means "soft, gentle Bach." She advocates singing Bach's music in different pitches than given when necessary, or adjusting tempo and text, which means singing Bach's texts in Japanese as well. In this way, amateurs in Japan would have easier access to Bach.

"It's not his words, but it's his music that has a direct and deep effect on us," she told DW.

How international Bach choirs make Bach's music sound and interpret it in their countries varies widely. The Sociedad de Bach, also founded by Diego Sanchez Haase, aims to promote and communicate Bach's music in Paraguay. Sanchez Haase brings Bach's music to areas of his homeland where the ensemble performs many Bach works for the first time.

Unlike in Germany where young people tend to listen to rock music, in Paraguay it is young people who attend classical concerts. Diego Sanchez Haase says: "I think there is a connection between Bach's music, rock 'n' roll and jazz. It's this great energy and perfect musical construction that appeals to many people."

Bach's music in Leipzig

Lisette Canton, on the other hand, is especially looking forward to the enthusiastic audience in Leipzig. "People in Canada appreciate classical music and culture, but it's not the same as in Leipzig. There, people really understand and adore this music by Bach."

There will be a special highlight at the "Bach — We are Family" project at the end of the Bach Festival. With 92 singers from 16 nations, the Bach Archive president and conductor, Ton Koopman, will rehearse Bach cantatas in a workshop. Accompanied by the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, this vocal power will be heard on June 18 in St. Thomas Church.

This article was originally written in German.