Bach by Bike Ensemble - Reise mit Bach – weil er nicht auffzuhalten
Bach by Bike Ensemble
Reise mit Bach – weil er nicht auffzuhalten
a work from each place of residence of Johann Sebastian Bach
Bach by Bike Ensemble:
Anna-Luise Oppelt – Alto
Mareike Neumann – Violin
Damian Poloczek – Organ
In the concert program “Reise mit Bach – weil er nicht auffzuhalten,” the Bach by Bike Ensemble presents a piece from each of the places where Johann Sebastian Bach lived. As the founders of the guided musical bike tours Bach by Bike, we know these places very well: starting in our singing studies in Weimar, we had the idea to lead people by bike through the wonderfully bikeable locations of Bach's life and play Bach's music where it was created. As part of this bike tour project, we also founded the Bach by Bike Ensemble.
In the concert program, one can now musically experience Bach's places of life in Rietberg.
Beginning in Eisenach, Bach's birthplace, through Ohrdruf, Lüneburg, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, Weimar, and Köthen to Leipzig, this musical life journey unfolds. Since Bach himself likely did not compose any music in Eisenach between the ages of 0 and 10, we will play for this location the music with which Johann Sebastian grew up: his great-uncle was the organist at the Georgenkirche, the baptism church of J. S. Bach, and he composed some pieces that have been preserved to this day. With the Ciaconna from the cantata “Meine Freundin, du bist schön” by Johann Christoph Bach, we open the life journey. In a colorful varying lineup from solo organ to sonatas for violin and harpsichord to alto arias with solo violin from Bach's cantatas, we move forward to Leipzig. For each location, we tell our audience the background of the chosen piece and Bach's life, explaining why it led him to the next place. In doing so, we like to share some of the transmitted anecdotes and quote from the few documents from which we can at least partially reconstruct the life of this baroque genius today: a quote from the letter of dismissal for Bach from the city council in Mühlhausen is title-giving for our program: the 22-23-year-old Bach had been working in this city for about a year and had already applied for a position in Weimar. So let him go, "because he cannot be stopped." A nice start for a musician who still had much ahead of him on his life journey. In our concert program, we lead through the continuously advancing development of his work, just as Bach himself likely progressed most of the distances in his life (at least in his younger years) on foot, and we believe he incorporated these wanderings through the landscapes of Thuringia and Saxony into his music. In this concert, we connect music and cultural history through moderation and illustrate how the immortal music and the exciting life of a baroque artist can touch us today.
Admission: 4:30 PM
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
