In the second half of our concert season we want to continue to offer our listeners a little piece of heaven with our performances of heavenly music. Amongst these are selected compositions by JS Bach under the motto Bach - Baroque - Bavaria: his St Matthew Passion is always a challenge as well as a revelation. Bach´s wonderful Motets, mostly scored for double choir, will bring us to the breathtaking lakeside setting of St Mary´s Church in Diessen, whose ceiling carries a fresco depicting heaven. As another new development, we are giving two concerts in Munich museums: an attractive orchestral programme in honour of Bach´s birthday in the Mars-Venus Room of the Bavarian National Museum, and performances of Bach violin concertos by the talented violinist Mirijam Contzen in the Rubens Room of the Old Pinakothek.

No less a person than Gottfried van Swieten (1733-1803) ensured that Bach´s music was passed on to the next composing generation, by making it known to Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. It is therefore not surprising that despite the classical Viennese style of these composers´ works, the influence of Bach is detectable in their construction, fugues or baroque harmonic sequences. We have been invited to perform Haydn´s Timpani Mass in the Parisian Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and shortly afterwards we will present an unusual Beethoven programme in the Prinzregentheater in Munich.

That Bach´s music also inspired countless modern composers to compose new and highly expressive works can be heard in our traditional concert given on the anniversary of Bach´s death. The Azerbaijani composer Arif Mirzoyev, known as the JS Bach of the orient, composed for Bach´s tercentenary in 1985 a monumental organ symphony that was first performed in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. The first Munich performance of this work will take place in our July concert.

How does music sound in heaven? Maybe the way Antonio Vivaldi´s music is currently being played in Venice´s churches. With Italian baroque works we start into the summer und look forward to welcoming you in our concerts and to inspiring you with heavenly music.

Hansjörg Albrecht