Concerts with works by

Johann Sebastian Bach

Guest performance

Jurriën Hamer about power

Churches are gradually emptying, yet everyone still needs moments of contemplation. Reflect with Bach is just such a moment. For each edition, the unconventional Flemish poet Maud Vanhauwaert, presenter Lex Bohlmeijer and the Netherlands Bach Society are joined by a different writer and thinker, to explore the universal themes of life and offer tranquillity through the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Today’s theme is: power. With: Jurriën Hamer.In this Reflect with Bach, philosopher, lawyer and writer Jurriën Hamer reflects on the theme of power. His story is interwoven with parts of three cantatas by Bach that form the base for his magnum opus, the Mass in B Minor. Jurriën Hamer studied law and philosophy at Utrecht University. In 2022, he published his first book: ‘ Waarom schurken pech hebben en helden geluk: een nieuwe filosofie van de vrije wil’ (Why Villains Always Lose and Heroes Win: a new philosophy of free will). As a writer, speaker and moderator, he shows how philosophical ideas about justice, guilt and free will have a huge influence on our lives, in an accessible, humorous and inspiring way.This concert is part of the series Reflect with Bach.Please note: the spoken language of this series is Dutch.

Concert de midi et demi avec Ye XIN, Spyros THOMAS, Jianyu SONG

Watch This Space | Stefan Schilli and the BRSO Academy

BRSO solo oboist Stefan Schilli has been a Friend of the Academy for many years and is wholeheartedly committed to the Academy’s up-and-coming professional musicians. With his program for this Watch-This-Space concert, he not only wants to support the scholarship recipients, but also specifically challenge them – for instance with Mozart’s great serenade for winds, the Gran Partita, whose Adagio is also one of the most beautiful that Mozart ever wrote. Ligeti himself considered the Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet to be “miniature concertos” in which the individual instrumentalists are showcased in particularly striking ways. This is also the case with Bach, where there is an equal juxtaposition of musical lines with different timbres and characteristics.

Ensemble Resonanz / Leila Josefowicz / Claire Chase

»Man is only completely a man when he plays.« Friedrich Schiller already understood it, and Ensemble Resonanz and Leila Josefowicz provide the proof: they light-footedly dismantle their world, reassemble it and take their audience on a boundless adventure of discovery. The Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall turns into a playground of creativity: from Leoš Janáček to Pauline Oliveros, they arrange a diverse musical collage, unhinge Bach, pile up the building blocks of life with Felix Mendelssohn and awaken the homo ludens in the audience. A new work by the playful Dai Fujikura lets the soloists soar like birds in spirals over the musical playing field, while the orchestra also picks up momentum. A concert becomes a thrilling carousel ride!

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

In their first joint programme, Akamus and the award-winning Basel vocal ensemble Voces Suaves present musical highlights from the generation of German composers before Johann Sebastian Bach and thus the impressive musical world into which he was born. The programme includes works by the extended Bach family as well as by composers who are largely unknown today and who preceded the later Thomaskantor in his important positions in Mühlhausen, Weimar and Leipzig. From the oeuvre of Johann Sebastian Bach, the double-choir motet ‘Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf’ will be performed..

Guest performance

Concert de midi et demi avec In-Rak SON, Qiaochu LI et Dimitri WEISSENBERG

Orgelstunde

Jeremy Joseph, who took over this organ lesson at short notice for his teacher Martin Haselböck, who was ill, is no stranger to Berlin audiences: six years ago, he was already a duo partner for Gottlieb Wallisch in the Great Hall of the Konzerthaus Berlin, with whom he performed a brilliant program Organ & Piano. In this solo program, he spans an arc from Johann Sebastian Bach and Max Reger - each represented with major works - to Arnold Schoenberg as a “modern classic”, whose variations on a theme by Johann Sebastian Bach are now also part of the standard repertoire.

Guest performance

Guest performance

Cameron Carpenter

The flamboyant Cameron Carpenter takes on two musical monuments daringly arranged by himself: Mussorgsky’s phantasmagorias and Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the alpha and omega of his oeuvre.

Pianist Series: Igor Levit

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Choral Music Concert

Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Bartosz Michałowski, photo: Bartek Barczyk Works in one part or more, polyphonic and polychoral, religious and secular, in Latin and in French, a cappella and with instruments… It seems impossible to create a short definition of the term ‘motet’ that would take into account all the incarnations of the genre, from the Middle Ages to the present day. The term could indicate both the composition technique, typical of this type of work, and its language or function. It is also not easy to ascertain how many motets Johann Sebastian Bach wrote, not just because we do not know the exact number of his lost works, but also because of the ambiguous generic classification of his surviving legacy, with a chronology that is difficult to establish. They include at least seven works (mostly a due cori and without obbligato instrument parts) with a German text, which are numbered 225 to 230 and 1164 in Wolfgang Schmieder’s catalogue. They follow the tradition of seventeenth-century Protestant motets to biblical words and religious poetry. In Bach’s time, they were mostly performed at funerals – circumstances that did not (generally) allow for pomp and for following new fashions. They could also serve as didactic pieces. The motet Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, still sung after Bach’s death in St Thomas’s in Leipzig (to the delight of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), for example, could have been used to work with Bach’s pupils.

Cappella Andrea Barca / Sir András Schiff

András Schiff in his own garden, exploring with relish Bach’s Triple Concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord and the enchanted paths of two of Mozart’s most awe-inspiring piano concertos.

Concert de clavecin – Pierre Hantaï

Mozart Week Salzburg

Sheku Kanneh-Mason & Cellist*innen des Konzerthausorchesters

What's even more beautiful than a cello? Ten cellos! Chamber music is one of the great joys of life for our orchestra musicians. Here, seven members of our cello group and our orchestra academy come together with their colleague Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who is our current artist in residence, for a musically diverse programme.

Motette

SCHAGHAJEGH NOSRATI

For several years, Schaghajegh Nosrati has championed the music of French composer and pianist Charles Valentin Alkan, contributing to his rediscovery with an acclaimed recording of several of his piano works. As the final piece of her solo recital, she has chosen Alkan’s unconventional and highly virtuosic “Symphony for Solo Piano.” The program also includes works by Bach, Bartók, Haydn, and contemporary German composer Charlotte Seither.

Igor Levit

Every pianist and soloist takes a risk with Franz Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Few have dared to tackle this pianistic chunk, which demands everything at once: power, virtuosity, a sense of the piece's architecture, and a keen ear for detail. Igor Levit takes on this task. Liszt has long been a favorite in his repertoire. For a TV documentary, he already traced the composer's footsteps around 15 years ago. Levit's program for the Essen Philharmonic is brilliant: First, he takes us back to the starting point of all romantic piano virtuosity, Bach's "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue".

Alexis Cárdenas / Jorge Glem

A breathtaking musical journey that shows in a folkloristic and cheerful way the musical bridges that connect Bach and other classical European icons with the most beautiful Latin American rhythms. The concert begins with Bach and ends with him. In between, the musicians show the full richness of Latin American music.

Symphoniker Hamburg / Chamber Concert

This recital opens with Bach's trio sonatas for violin and harpsichord, highlighting the harpsichord's novel equality. Schubert's C-Major Fantasy for violin and piano, written for Josef Slavík, challenged audiences with its length and free form. Sibelius's Nocturne from "Belshazzar's Feast" follows Leschanah's palace dialogue with the stars. Saint-Saëns's first violin sonata, announced with humor, became a hit. Kroll's "Banjo and Fiddle" captures American folk music and gained popularity through Jascha Heifetz.

Michael Schönheit

Bach Bruckner

Il Sogno Veneziano

Motette

Preußens Hofmusik II

For two decades, Prussia's Hofmusik, the chamber orchestra series of the Staatskapelle Berlin, has focused on music from the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly composers and works associated with the history of the Staatsoper and Staatskapelle. In its anniversary season, the ensemble spotlights Johann Sebastian Bach, revered by King Frederick II of Prussia, whose sons were active in Berlin, and whose influential renaissance originated there. The program features inspired secular and sacred cantatas by Bach, along with renowned instrumental music.

Hamburger Camerata / Valentin Egel

If there is a group of works that matches the Hamburger Camerata’s season’s motto »Camerata concertante« like pot and lid, it is the »Brandenburgischen Konzerte« by Johann Sebastian Bach! The six »Concerts avec plusieurs instruments«, which the Köthener Hofkapellmeister wrote in 1721 as his artistic calling card for Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg, are a real playground for concerting soloists and ensembles in all conceivable constellations. On the 275th anniversary of Bach’s death, which is celebrated by the Musikwelt on 28 July 2025, the Hamburger Camerata, with soloists from its own ranks as well as musical friends finally dedicated themselves to the entire »Six Pack« in one evening with soloists from its own ranks and musical friends.

Plenum / Anima

In Plenum / Anima, a performance celebrating connection, on- and off-stage partners Olivier Latry and Shin-Young Lee take turns and share duets at the Philharmonie de Paris organ, while Idio Chichava, Benjamin Millepied, and Jobel Medina interpret their music through danse.

Sir Simon Rattle · BRSO hip

“HIP” is not only the abbreviation for ’Historically Informed Performance,’ but above all denotes Sir Simon Rattle’s initiative to expand the BRSO repertoire with baroque music – played on period instruments. The Chief Conductor commences with three of Bach’s most beautiful cantatas. Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht is full of poignant friction and sigh-laden progressions. Every note of Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben contains a longing for death, but also the assurance of an eternal life. Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan is probably most akin to chamber music: with its sparse instrumentation and the omission of a final chorale, it occupies a unique position among Bach’s cantatas.