The great musician and composer Johann Sebastian Bach spent almost three decades of his life in Leipzig. Many of his most famous works were written here, in what was until World War II the most important trade fair city in Germany, and whose most famous musical son is Richard Wagner. Bach’s grave is today in St Thomas’ Church. The 2007 theme of the annual Bach Festival is ‘From Monteverdi to Bach’, for scarcely no other era revolutionized musical feeling and thinking more than the Baroque. Renowned musicians and award-winning instrumentalists from many countries perform in venues that breathe the spirit of Bach and carry traces of his predecessors.
With its 800-year-old history, St Thomas Boys Choir is the oldest cultural institution in Leipzig. Famous choirmasters such as Johann Sebastian Bach helped to make the choir world-famous. The heart of its work is the sacred music in the weekly services, motets and cantatas. Oratorios by Bach can also be enjoyed regularly. The Thomaner boys can be heard regularly at 6 pm on Fridays and 3 pm on Saturdays in St Thomas’ Church, if they are not on tour to famous venues all over the world.
Concerts in the Summer Hall of the Leipzig Bach Museum
The gold and silver merchant Georg Heinrich Bose was not only a friend of Bach’s but also godfather to five of his children. The rooms of Bose’s Baroque merchant’s house opposite St Thomas’ Church now house the Leipzig Bach Museum. The series of concerts in the faithfully restored Summer Hall are dedicated to the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Established ensembles and young artists play historical instruments and give the music a certain authenticity.
The Gohlis People’s Concerts every last Sunday in the month are held in one of the gems of the cultural history of Saxony, Gohlis Castle in Leipzig, which was built as the rococo country residence of a rich merchant. Among the 200 artists that have taken part in this series of concerts are well-known Leipzig chamber music groups from the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the MDR Radio Orchestra, selected soloists and young independent ensembles.
Leipzig’s Opera House was opened in 1960 with Richard Wagner’s ‘Meistersinger’ and still exudes the unaffected charm of the post-war years. The creative curiosity of the artists working in it, among them General Music Director Riccardo Chailly, has brought great fame to the house. The 2006–2007 season sees many new productions, including five operas, four ballets, four musical comedies and the new children’s opera ‘The Man in the Moon’. The season opens with Verdi’s ‘Luisa Miller’ and includes a revival of Wagner’s ‘Lohengrin’. The new music features Britten’s ‘The Turn of the Screw’ and Peter Maxwell Davies’ ‘Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot’.
The world-famous Gewandhaus Orchestra is the oldest civic orchestra in the world and is today housed in the Gewandhaus Concert Hall, opened in 1981 under Kurt Masur. Famous compositions by great composers such as Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schubert have been premiered by the Leipzig ensemble. The highlight of the 2007 season is the Schubert Weekend of the Gewandhaus Quartet on 21–22 April. To celebrate his 210th birthday, Schubert’s greatest chamber music is performed. The cellist Peter Bruns and the pianist Alfredo Perl are expected as performers.
Felix Mendelssohn is one of the most famous musicians to have lived and worked in Leipzig. Since 1997 the Mendelssohn Festival has been in held in his honor by the Gewandhaus Concert Hall, the Mendelssohn House, the Schumann House, the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy College of Music and Theater, the Bach Archive, the Museum of Music Instruments and St Thomas’ Church. Approximately 30 events in 2007 focus on the connection between Felix Mendelssohn and Italy.
The Mendelssohn House is the only museum in the world to honor the composer and director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Felix Mendelssohn. Every Sunday classical and romantic works are performed in the music salon of the Mendelssohn family. In August the Mendelssohn House is host to the Leipzig Summer Piano Festival, featuring internationally acclaimed pianists.
The Great Hall of St Nicholas’ School, Leipzig, where Richard Wagner was a conspicuously bad scholar, is now the home of LeipJAZZig. The concerts of the three-day festival always have a special theme, such as ‘World Music meets Jazz from Leipzig’, ‘Music and the Visual’, or ‘Music and Words’. But unorthodox musical forms and ensembles under the theme of ‘Side views’ also captivate the audience. And there are always the musicians from other countries as guests in Leipzig.
During the computer games fair Games Convention, Leipzig shows its night life from its most exciting side: the Honky Tonk® Music Festival, the biggest pub festival in Europe, features various types of live music in the most fashionable venues in Leipzig’s lively city center.
For four days a year, Leipzig is in the hands of the neo-romantics, who have their most important meeting here. International artists create the biggest black mass in the world, the Celebrant medieval market, as well as readings, role-plays, theater performances, thematic film series, open-air spectacles, music, fire and light performances, exhibitions, fashion shows, dance theater, variety entertainment, the Heathen Village, fetish events, esoteric and after-show parties with internationally-renowned DJs from the in-scene at unusual locations.
Leipzig Jazz Festival is one of the most important jazz festivals in the world. Thus, the musical city of Leipzig is today not only linked to classical music, but also to jazz. The program offers contemporary jazz in all its varieties. And the unusual venues make the festival a very popular event in Leipzig.
