Bachchor Mainz

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Bachchor Mainz
Choir
Origin Mainz, Germany
Founded1955
Genre Mixed choir
Members100
Chief conductor Ralf Otto
Website www.bachchormainz.de

The Bachchor Mainz is a mixed choir in Mainz, Germany, founded in 1955 by Diethard Hellmann who directed it for 30 years, focused on works by Johann Sebastian Bach and other Baroque composers. His successor Ralf Otto expanded the repertoire, especially by rarely performed contemporary music, and made the group known internationally.

Contents

History

The Bachchor Mainz was fouded by Diethard Hellmann in 1955. He conducted the group for 30 years, initiating a series of weekly Bach cantatas in collaboration with the broadcaster.

His successor included rarely performed works, especially contemporary music, but also pursued historically informed performances of older music. The choir worked with conductors such as Eliahu Inbal, Michael Gielen, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Péter Eötvös, Georges Prêtre, Peter Schreier, Ádám Fischer, Sylvain Cambreling, Riccardo Chailly and Philippe Jordan.

Concerts

The Bachchor Mainz has performed regularly on tours in Germany and abroad, including France, Israel, Poland, Spain, and South America. It has performed regularly in the Philharmonische Konzerte at the Opernhaus Zürich since 1992. In 2003 it was ranked as best choir of the year by the association of critics in Argentina. The choir participated in festivals such as Rheingau Musik Festival, Mosel Musikfestival  [ de ] (singing in the opening concerts of 2013, 2015 and 2018), Weilburger Schlosskonzerte, Festival Europäische Kirchenmusik in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Echternach Music Festival and the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden.

In October 2018, the Bachchor Mainz performed the world premiere Gerhard Müller-Hornbach oratorio Im Spiegel der Angst, a commission of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau on the occasion of 500 years Reformation in 2017. [1] .

Recordings

In 2017, the Bachchor Mainz began a series of CDs of Bach's major works, the St John Passion , the St Matthew Passion , the Christmas Oratorio and the Mass in B minor. [2] .

Related Research Articles

The St Mark Passion, BWV 247, is a lost Passion setting by Johann Sebastian Bach, first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday, 23 March 1731 and again, in a revised version, in 1744. Though Bach's music is lost, the libretto by Picander is still extant, and from this, the work can to some degree be reconstructed.

<i>Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?</i> BWV 27

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<i>Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen</i>, BWV 43

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diethard Hellmann</span>

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<i>Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied</i>, BWV 190a

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<i>Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott</i>, BWV 129

Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott, BWV 129, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is a chorale cantata performed on Trinity Sunday 8 June 1727 in Leipzig. Rediscovery of the printed libretto of the cantata in the first decade of the 21st century led to a re-appraisal of prior assumptions regarding the early performance chronology of a few cantatas, including this one.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">L'arpa festante</span>

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Bekennen will ich seinen Namen, BWV 200, is an arrangement by Johann Sebastian Bach of an aria from Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's passion-oratorio Die leidende und am Kreuz sterbende Liebe. He scored it for alto, two violins and continuo, possibly as part of a cantata for the feast of Purification. He probably led the first performance around 1742.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralf Otto</span> German conductor (born 1956)

Ralf Otto is a German conductor, especially known as a choral conductor and academic teacher. He founded the Vokalensemble Frankfurt, focused on contemporary music and winning competitions including Let the Peoples Sing. Since 1986, he has been director of the Bachchor Mainz, with a tradition of performing Bach cantatas in broadcast church services. He added late romantic and contemporary works to their repertoire and made international tours with them. They made world premiere recordings of some cantatas by Bach's oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, among other recordings. Otto was professor of choral conducting at the Folkwang Hochschule from 1990 to 2006, when he took the same position at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz.

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<i>Der Gerechte kömmt um</i> (motet) Motet with arrangement attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach

Der Gerechte kömmt um, BWV 1149, is a motet for SSATB singers and instrumental ensemble, which, for its music, is based on the five-part a cappella motet Tristis est anima mea attributed to Johann Kuhnau, and has the Luther Bible translation of Isaiah 57:1–2 as text. The arrangement of the Latin motet, that is, transposing it to E minor, adjusting its music to the new text, and expanding it with an instrumental score for two traversos, two oboes, strings and basso continuo, is attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. The setting is found in a manuscript copy, likely written down in the 1750s, of Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt, a Passion oratorio which is a pasticcio based on compositions by, among others, Carl Heinrich Graun, Georg Philipp Telemann and Bach. Likely Der Gerechte kömmt um existed as a stand-alone motet, for example for performance on Good Friday or at a funeral, before being adopted in the pasticcio.

References

  1. ""Im Spiegel der Angst" – Uraufführung von Müller-Hornbachs Luther-Oratorium in Mainz". Neue Musikzeitung (in German). Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  2. "Mainzer Bachchor: Beim Naxos-Label erscheinen bis 2019 vier große Vokalkompositionen des Barockmeisters". Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 9 February 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2023.