Bach Festival Leipzig 14 June - 23 June 2019 'Bach, Court Compositeur'




Bach, Court Compositeur

Bach's personal seal designed by him when appointed Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer

Why is the Bach Leipzig Festival important for Poland and the music of Fryderyk Chopin? 

Bach was the composer Chopin admired above all others save Mozart. He practised for days Das wohltemperierte Klavier before concerts of his own music rather than the pieces he would actually play. The important polyphonic strands and counterpoint within his own music were all derived from his adoration of J.S.Bach. Bach was always chosen during his teaching as indispensable to deeper musical understanding and meaning.

It is also instructive to remember other aspects of Bach's life were closely associated with Poland at the time. He always wished to be associated with court circles despite the small extent of some of these princely states. 

Bach was appointed Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer in 1736. The Elector Frederick Augustus II / Augustus III King of Poland was a great patron of the arts, a devout Catholic and music-lover. Bach dedicated the Kyrie and Gloria of the B minor Mass to him.
My reviews of concerts in the 2019 Leipzig Bach Festival are available at:

https://michael-moran.org/2019/06/16/bach-court-composer-bach-festival-leipzig-14-june-23-june-2019/



The actual document appointing Bach as Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer in 1736 signed by King Augustus III and his Prime Minister Count Heinrich von Brühl. 
It is exhibited in the fascinating temporary exhibition of documents, engravings, recordings and Bach autographs in the Bach Museum entitled  
'Bach, Court Compositeur' 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elisey Mysin recital - XVII International Piano Forum - Bieszczady Without Borders - Sanok, Poland

Image
Astounding musical experiences a lways happen i n Poland! Has been happening to me for as I long as I began visiting the country to work in 1992. The astonishing recital by the child prodigy  Elisey Mysin   I watched online last night prompted me to write this review immediately. It was broadcast from the International Piano Forum, a Polish musical event now in its seventeenth year. The Forum (lectures and concerts) is held in the town of Sanok (the 'capital' of the remote Bieszczady Region). I knew or know nothing about this remarkable Forum until last night.  The concert was  'In Memoriam Tatiana Shebanova',  that magnificent Russian pianist who died so tragically of leukemia in 2011 whilst at her pianistic peak. The concert was organized by her husband, the Chairman of the Piano Forum Council, Prof.  Jaros ław  Drzewiecki.    Tatiana Shebanova was one of the first pianists I heard play works by Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) in concert in Poland in 1992. It was an over
Read more

78th International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, Poland. August 4-12, 2023

Image
  78th International Chopin Festival Duszniki-Zdrój Poland  August 4-12, 2023   An introduction from Piotr Paleczny, Artistic Director Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Music Lovers, Hard as I find it to believe, it is already for the thirty-first time that I have the pleasure, honour, and great joy to welcome you – lovers of Fryderyk Chopin’s music and all the piano enthusiasts – in Duszniki-Zdrój and invite you warmly to the recitals presented during the 78th International Chopin Piano Festival. I am deeply convinced that this year’s Festival concerts will meet with your great interest and prove to be major events; that the emotions and experience of contact with the invited artists and their art will long remain in your memory. The names of those artists guarantee that our concerts will uphold the highest artistic standards. The Festival opens with a recital by Francesco Piemontesi, called the ‘Wizard of Sound’. Similarly extraordinary emotions also await us in the following evenings, feat
Read more

The Polish Romantic Guitar - The Polish Musical Renaissance - National Chopin Institute Recording Review

Image
Mateusz Kowalski Works by Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz (1805-1881) Felix Horecki (1796-1870) Stanisław Szczepanowski (1811? - 1877) Marek Konrad Sokołowski (1818-1883) Guitarist:  Mateusz Kowalski CD number: NIFCCD 118 Again, this ghastly pandemic has opened up caverns of reading time for me without distractions. I am once more inspired in my life and music practice by that singularly appropriate text from Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius taken from the poem of the same name by Cardinal John Henry Newman And while the storm of that bewilderment Is for a season spent And, ere afresh the ruin on me fall, Use well the interval. I brought this to bear in the following review of a CD devoted to the guitar in Poland and outstanding Polish guitar compositions. I agree, at first sight an arcane and not a well-known subject, but it suffers undeserved neglect. I have always loved the classical, acoustic guitar. My harpsichord builder, the great luthi
Read more