Concerts with works by

Johann Sebastian Bach

A Baroque Christmas with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

The Sunday Morning Concert brings you wonderful and much-loved compositions, performed by top musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. Enjoy the most beautiful music in the morning! You can make your Sunday complete by enjoying a delicious post-concert lunch in restaurant LIER.The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the best concert halls in the world, famous for its exceptional acoustics and varied programme. Attend a concert and have an experience you will never forget. Come and enjoy inspiring music in the beautiful surroundings of the Main Hall or the intimate Recital Hall.

Heavenly Voices: Netherlands Radio Choir and cellist Quirine Viersen

The Sunday Morning Concert brings you wonderful and much-loved compositions, performed by top musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. Enjoy the most beautiful music in the morning! You can make your Sunday complete by enjoying a delicious post-concert lunch in restaurant LIER.The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the best concert halls in the world, famous for its exceptional acoustics and varied programme. Attend a concert and have an experience you will never forget. Come and enjoy inspiring music in the beautiful surroundings of the Main Hall or the intimate Recital Hall.

Musik am Mittag

Midday music with the WDR Rundfunkchor: Switch off from everyday life, whether during your lunch break or as an island of peace while strolling through the city, and enjoy blissful choral music!

Concert de Midi et Demi avec Jiwan KIM et Daniil BOGDANOVSKI

Konzertreihe: POLYPHONISCHE BEGEGNUNGEN – POLYPHONIC ENCOUNTERS

Starting mid-March 2025, the viol consort Phantasm launches its concert series at St. Elisabeth Church in Berlin-Mitte. The series focuses on polyphony, highlighting a prominent composer of the technique in each concert. The inaugural concert, "The Well-Tempered Consort," features Bach, transcribed for three to five viols, offering a new perspective on his works. The concert also celebrates the release of Phantasm's new album, "The Art of Fugue." A post-concert drink is offered to all attendees.

Teatime Classics

Usually, the harp is in the middle of the orchestra and caters for dreamy tonal colours – Tjasha Gafner takes it from there into the limelight and shines as a soloist. The Swiss not only won First Prize in her category at the ARD Music Competition, but also the even more sought-after audience prize. She honours two great harp virtuosos in Henriette Renié and Marcel Tournier, who composed themselves. With two of her own arrangements of Bach and Haydn, she also shows her passion to expand the repertoire for her instrument. Harpist Tjasha Gafner, born in Switzerland in 1999, completed her studies at the Juilliard School in New York under Nancy Allen, after she had completed her Masters as a soloist under Letizia Belmondo at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne. Since 2022, she has been studying education at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne under Sandrine Chatron. She is the prize winner of several Swiss and international competitions. Since the age of 10, she has performed in Germany, France, Hong Kong and many other countries and has been on the stage as a soloist with the chamber orchestra of the Bayerische Philharmonie, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the London Mozart Players.

Sei Solo

Concert featuring Emilia Viktoria Lomakova, performing on cello and vocals.

Lucas Chiche – Récital Piano – COMPLET

Pianist Tom Borrow plays Bach and Schumann

For lovers of chamber music the Recital Hall is the venue of choice. You can hear the musicians breathe and you can practically touch them. This hall is also cherished by musicians for its beautiful acoustics and direct contact with the audience. In the Recital Hall you can hear the best musicians of our time. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Recital Hall for yourself!

Pearls in Baroque: Joseph & Michael Haydn

The Bach Choir & Orchestra of the Netherlands: St Matthew Passion

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!

Leipziger Choräle, Sonaten, Präludien und Fugen

Musik in der Sophienkirche: Orgelkonzert Steffen Walther

The program features works related to Passiontide from various musical cycles by Olivier Messiaen, framed by two major organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Steffen Walther, organist and lecturer, will perform. His deep musical understanding promises an impressive sound experience. Video transmission in the nave makes the fascinating work of the organists tangible.

Guest performance

Simply... Philharmonic!4: Jadran Duncumb

Jadran Duncumb, fot. Jørn Pedersen The standard method of writing out lute works was to use tablature notation. It was convenient for the performer, thanks to the clear indication of the string and the fret from which the sound should be made. However, tablature notation was not the most precise, as it did not stipulate the duration of notes. Johann Sebastian Bach was not a lutenist, so he could not adopt a performer’s perspective when composing his lute pieces. Consequently, he wrote them out in classical scores, and the existing tablatures of his works were certainly not written by Johann Sebastian himself. We may speculate that, in assigning a work to the lute, Bach wanted to maintain a degree of control over the musical material, as he did with works for other instruments. Moreover, some of the lute compositions are arrangements of earlier works: the Suite in G minor, BWV 995, for example, evolved from its cello counterpart BWV 1011 (then in the key of C minor). Perhaps, when writing these works, Bach was thinking not only of the lute, but also of the Lautenwerk – a keyboard instrument with gut strings whose sound imitated the lute. A document prepared after the composer’s death, in 1750, shows that he owned two such instruments. The existing lute works certainly testify that this instrument, still popular in the eighteenth century, was important to Bach. Simply… Philharmonic! Project 4: If one were to assign a specific instrument to each country of particular importance on the musical scene of Baroque Europe, the viola da gamba would certainly fall to France. Such an attempt to find national connections to instruments was also made by the eighteenth-century gambist Hubert Le Blanc, who opened his treatise on the instrument with the statement: The Divine Intelligence, among its many gifts, has endowed mortals with Harmony. The violin fell to the Italians, the flute to the Germans, the harpsichord to the English, and the basse de viole to the French. Although the roots of the French school of gamba playing can be traced to England (the first chordal compositions were written there, and the English are credited with popularising the instrument on the Continent), it was in France that some of the instrument’s greatest virtuosos worked and its construction was perfected. Foreign musicians also trained in France, such as the German gambist Ernst Christian Hesse. One instrument related to the viola da gamba is the lute, and works for lute were taken as models for gamba compositions by Antoine Forqueray, among others, a musician contemporary of Marin Marais. In their time, the eminent lute player, theorist and guitarist Robert de Visée, who was also a gamba player, worked in the ensemble of King Louis XIV at Versailles, as Jean Rousseau mentions in one of his letters. The similarity between the gamba and the lute may also have been noticed by Johann Sebastian Bach, as is suggested by the aria ‘Komm süsses Kreuz’ from the St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, in which the composer envisaged a solo part for viola da gamba. In the original version, however, the solo instrument there was the lute. Daniel Laskowski

Finale des Bach-Wettbewerbs Leipzig 2025

Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognetti

'Is there a better chamber orchestra in the world?' (The Guardian). Australia's premiere ensemble performs works by JS Bach, Sofia Gubaidalina and Shostakovich.

Festival Élite 2025 – Fiona & Chiara ALAIMO

Charlotte Spruit & Friends: Bach, Matteis and De Visée

The Sunday Morning Concert brings you wonderful and much-loved compositions, performed by top musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. Enjoy the most beautiful music in the morning! You can make your Sunday complete by enjoying a delicious post-concert lunch in restaurant LIER.The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the best concert halls in the world, famous for its exceptional acoustics and varied programme. Attend a concert and have an experience you will never forget. Come and enjoy inspiring music in the beautiful surroundings of the Main Hall or the intimate Recital Hall.

Augustin Hadelich Solo

Augustin Hadelich performs Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, alongside Ysaÿe's "Ballade" and works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and David Lang. "Blue/s Forms" evokes a blend of blues, vibrant colors, and melancholic moods, combining jazz and classical traditions.

Organ concert: Schmitt Koch Kabadaić

The stage is set for our favourite organist, who is also in great demand on the international scene: In the last organ concert of this season, Christian Schmitt will play our large concert hall organ – accompanied by our solo flutist Daniela Koch and our deputy solo violist Branko Kabadaić. The concert begins with a fascinating etude for organ pedal, which Christian Schmitt premièred in Zurich in 2023 – and about which the composer Maximilian Schnaus writes: »The musical idea illuminates the peripheral areas of the organ sound and the peripheral areas of our perception.« Liszt studied Bach’s organ works and passions intensively, particularly during his time in Weimar – and his affection for this Baroque master found intimate expression in the Andante »Aus tiefer Not«, written in 1859. Paul Hindemith wrote this touching funeral music on a concert tour in London on 21 January 1936 within a few hours after King George V had died there on the previous day. Bach’s masterful Sonata in G major captivates with its skilful interweaving of voices between the two instruments. For César Franck, it was clear: »Mon orgue? – C'est un orchestre!« And that is exactly how his magnificent musical creations sound – including the »Grande pièce symphonique«, completed in 1862, which even bears the required orchestral gesture in its title. Tōru Takemitsu, the cosmopolitan and influential composer from Japan, created an almost revolutionary work in 1971 with his flute piece »Voice« – because the human voice is included here in an interesting way. To wrap things up, the concertino by Cécile Chaminade, written in 1902, impresses with its breathtaking virtuosity, passionate gestures, shimmering harmonies and yearning melodies.

Bach: Matthäus-Passion / Hans-Christoph Rademann

In January 2023, the audience in the Elbphilharmonie responded to the performance of Bach’s St John Passion with the Gaechinger Cantorey with minutes of cheering. »There was a lot to celebrate«, commented Marcus Stäbler for the Hamburger Abendblatt at the time, citing the »eye for the big picture«, the »dense arc of tension«, the »sense of context« and the »flair for detail« in Hans-Christoph Rademann’s interpretation. Now the long-established ensemble of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart is returning to the Elbe with the St Matthew Passion. The monumental oratorio with nine soloists, two choirs and a double orchestra immerses the audience in a deeply spiritual, moving and poetic experience. Bach’s depiction of Jesus’ last hours offers a journey through the human soul in the spirit of the Protestant tradition of the time. He masterfully brings the sacred text to life with vivid harmonies and exquisite interplay between soloists and choirs. With a hand-picked choir, a first-class baroque orchestra and outstanding soloists, Hans-Christoph Rademann presents a renewed and faithful version of this highlight of vocal music of all time.

Kebyart Saxophonquartett Dem Himmel so nah

The Kebyart Saxophone Quartet, comprised of four Catalonians, is captivating international audiences with their divine saxophone performances. Their Heidelberg program features a range of music from sacred choral works to Purcell's fantasies and Clara Schumann's "Fugitive Pieces," arranged for saxophones. Even Jörg Widmann, initially skeptical of the genre, was impressed by the quartet's sound culture. Their program is topped off by Widmann's "7 Capricci" and a new piece by Mikel Urquiza.

Violin Recital

Augustin Hadelich, photo: Suxiao_Yang Augustin Hadelich used the time of the Covid-19 pandemic to study solo works by Johann Sebastian Bach. He has the good fortune to play on a unique violin called ‘Leduc’, once owned by the famous virtuoso Henryk Szeryng and considered by some to be the last work of the Cremonese lutenist Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù. On this instrument, he recorded a two-CD album of Bach sonatas and partitas. Hadelich matched a copy of a Baroque bow to an eighteenth-century violin, but without completely abandoning the ‘modern’ aesthetic in which he grew up. Two Bach partitas will open and close his recital at the Warsaw Philharmonic, consisting of varied examples of solo violin music. In his Blue/s Forms, Coleridge Taylor Perkinson drew on intervals characteristic of blues and jazz that are lowered for expressive purposes (so-called blue notes). David Lang’s Mystery Sonatas, a cycle premiered in 2014 by Augustin Hadelich, is a conscious (albeit distant) reference to the famous work of the brilliant Baroque violinist Heinrich Ignaz Biber. As for Eugène Ysaÿe’s showstopping Sonata No. 3, dedicated to Romanian composer George Enescu, it ranks alongside Bach’s sonatas and partitas among the greatest and most popular challenges of the solo violin repertoire. The concert will take place in the Concert Hall, and not, as previously planned, in the Chamber Music Hall.

Berliner Barock Solisten/Kapelis – Bach: Complete Keyboard Concertos

The Berliner Barock Solisten and pianist Alexandros Kapelis come together for Bach’s six concertos for solo keyboard and orchestra: a tour-de-force not seen on the concert stage in recent memory.

L’arpa festante. Markus Uhl 25. März 1725. Dreihundert Jahre BWV 1

The cantata "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" opened the first volume of the Bach Complete Edition in 1851, which is why it was given number 1 in the Bach Works Catalogue (BWV) in 1950. The occasion for the composition was the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25, 1725. The concert attempts a reconstruction of the vespers service that took place on this day in Leipzig. At the same time, the musicologically well-founded approach is pursued to perform Bach's vocal works without a choir, only with five excellent vocal soloists and a baroque orchestra. Bach's music will thus sound - beyond familiar performance traditions - in the most original way possible. Concert without intermission.

Festakt anlässlich der Eröffnung der Leipziger Buchmesse 2025 mit

Duplex Piano – The Piano with Two Manuals

Around 1920, the composer Emánuel Moór had the vision of building the piano of the future. His duplex piano with two manuals was born out of the spirit of the late Romantic period and offers even more tonal colours and a greater richness of sound. On an ordinary piano, one touch of the keys causes a hammer to strike the string. With the duplex piano, two hammers can be coupled: one keystroke then produces two tones simultaneously. This doubling of the tones leads to an unimagined fullness of sound in the forte, and to a magical brilliance of sound in the piano. The two manuals allow for differentiated layers of sound. The concerto is a homage to Johann Sebastian Bach. Emánuel Moór arranged one of Bach’s most famous organ works for the duplex piano: the Dorian Toccata and Fugue. Bach’s music had a profound influence on composers after him, including Schumann, Brahms and the Swiss-German composer Joachim Raff. And so the Romantics entwine themselves around Bach on this evening. Excellent soloists can be heard: Violinist Denis Goldfeld is an internationally renowned musician, violist Boris Faust teaches as a professor of viola at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. David Stromberg, who rediscovered the duplex piano and curates the Emánuel Moór concerts, will play the cello. Pianist Florian Uhlig is the master of the duplex piano. He was honoured with the Opus Klassik media prize and the German Record Prize for his complete recording of Robert Schumann’s piano works.

Organ matinee with Ligita Sneibe

Through Konserthuset’s popular organ matinée subscription, audiences get to hear Sweden’s leading organists play the building’s organ – one of the largest in Europe, with 6,100 pipes. Latvian Ligita Sneibe is trained as an organist and composer at the Music Academy in Riga, and also holds an organ diploma from the School of Music in Piteå. She has performed around the world but is now most active in Sweden and Latvia, where she often plays on the famous Walcker organ in Riga Cathedral.Ligita Sneibe begins with music from 2023 by her compatriot Indra Riše: excerpts from Natura siderum, or The Nature of Stars. It's about music inspired by human psychological traits according to the zodiac signs. Three of the twelve parts are composed for organ solo: Libra, Capricorn, and Leo.We also hear Bach's magnificent and virtuosic Toccata and Fugue in F major and finally music by Naji Hakim, Chant de Joie – Song of Joy. Hakim was born in Beirut but is active in Paris, where he succeeded Olivier Messiaen as organist at Trinité Church some 30 years ago.***You are welcome to eat or drink something before or after the organ concert. The bar in the Main Foyer is open at 11.45–12.15 and 13.15–14.15, offering a variety of delicious food and drinks in our beautiful surroundings.

Brandenburgische Konzerte 1–6

Bach's "Six Concerts with Several Instruments," better known as the Brandenburg Concertos, are neither solo concertos nor concerti grossi. Instead, they showcase the diverse ways instruments can interact. Maurice Steger, a recorder virtuoso, demonstrates the recorder's refined role in these pieces. The concert lasts approximately 125 minutes including intermission.

Brandenburgische Konzerte 1–6

Bach's "Six Concerts with Several Instruments," better known as the Brandenburg Concertos, are neither solo concertos nor concerti grossi. Instead, they showcase the diverse ways instruments can interact. Maurice Steger, a recorder virtuoso, demonstrates the recorder's refined role in these pieces. The concert lasts approximately 125 minutes including intermission.