„...bach modern...“ / or / „...which wondrous metamorphosis the venerable Munich Bach Choir is currently undergoing...“ (RONDO 2008)

The Munich Bach Choir was founded by Karl Richter in 1954. The choir gained international renown under his direction through major tours all over the world - from Paris to Tokyo via Moscow and New York - featuring his interpretations of Bach works, and by its recordings with Deutsche Grammophon. In 1985 Hanns-Martin Schneidt took over as director, and he continued the choir´s extensive touring while giving it a new musical impetus. In addition, baroque specialists such as Peter Schreier and Bruno Weil, and also major conductors of the calibre of Leonard Bernstein and Oleg Caetani, appeared as guest conductors with the choir. At the start of the 2005/6 season, the young conductor Hansjörg Albrecht, “a stroke of luck for the Munich Bach Choir” according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, was appointed as new musical director of the choir. He has conferred on the choir a new artistic style, and a transparent sound quality which is consistently highlighted in excellent reviews by the Munich and international press. The performance of the Bach St Matthew’s Passion on Good Friday 2006, which was transmitted live by Bavarian radio, was enthusiastically received by the press: “When did we last hear such a radical, passionate St Matthew’s Passion...”

Albrecht´s lively Bach interpretations, inspired by historical performance practice, are the main focus of his work with the choir. Innovative programme concepts and a constant extension of its repertoire (including opera concertante and choral symphonic works by Gluck, Schubert, Mahler, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Honegger, Duruflé and Poulenc) have by now become trademarks of the ensemble. Another new feature is the regular collaboration with a children´s choir selected for the occasion from children attending Munich schools specialising in music, with the aim of introducing the children to major choir and orchestral works. The Munich Bach Choir also gave four children´s concerts with the Munich Radio Orchestra at the summer festival of the Bavarian Radio in 2007.

Recently the MBC has performed with John Neumeier´s ballet company and with well-known soloists such as Chen Reiss, Ruth Ziesak, Elisabeth Kulman, Christiane Iven, Ingeborg Danz, Markus Schäfer, Konrad Jarnot and Roman Trekel as well as with the actor Uwe Ochsenknecht. The choir has worked with orchestras such as Prague Philharmonia, the Saxon State Orchestra Dresden, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra and the State Philharmonic Orchestra Rheinland-Pfalz. In addition to these performances, the Bach Collegium Munich has been the regular musical partner of the choir since 2005.

Since autumn 2005 the MBC has appeared regularly - with the Bach Collegium Munich and with other orchestras - in Munich´s major concert halls, in various other cities and in European international festivals (“Settembre Musica” in Torino, Genoa, Milan, Danzig, Warsaw, Oberammergau, 4th European Music Festival “EuropaMusicale”, festival “Europäische Wochen Passau”, Frankfurt, Essen and Mannheim). A particular highlight was the performance of the original version of Gustav Mahler´s symphonic cantata “Klagendes Lied” as the opening concert of “Gustav Mahler Musikwochen” festival 2008 in Toblach, Italy.

As well as the recent productions with the Bavarian Radio and with Polish media, CD and DVD recordings of Bach´s Christmas Oratorio and of an opera pasticcio composed of Bach’s Secular Cantatas bear witness to the highly productive cooperation between the two great Munich Bach Ensembles. Additionally, in autumn 2009 a new Christmas CD with the title “Frohlocket ihr Völker auf Erden” was launched, on which the MBC together with outstanding soloists combines well-known Christmas hymns with songs of the German Romantic period to create a musical Christmas story.

Last update: September 2009