A Message from the Artistic Director
A warm welcome to the 6th edition of the Montreal Bach Festival. Our whole team has been working hard to once again offer its Montreal public an array of exciting concerts. Numerous Canadian artists will alternate with internationally acclaimed guests in programmes we hope will charm and interest you.
As in the past, this year’s Festival will also feature concerts in which the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is played alongside that of other composers. These can be Bach’s predecessors and masters, Heinrich Schütz or Dietrich Buxtehude, some of the leading composers of his time, Georg Philipp Telemann, Antonio Vivaldi and Georg Friedrich Händel, or even his musical heirs, Ludwig van Beethoven or Arvo Pärt. A good case in point are the two concerts given by the Italian ensemble La Risonanza and its music director, Fabio Bonizzoni. La Risonanza opens the Festival with an all-Bach programme featuring the soprano Yetzabel Arias Fernández, while its concert on the following day is dedicated solely to Bach’s major contemporaries.
This year also marks the performance of two of Bach’s major choral works. Beside the Magnificat, which will be given by I Musici of Montreal and the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, we are also very proud to present Belgium conductor Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent who will perform the six-part Christmas Oratorio twice in its entirety on two separate evenings. This outstanding group of musicians is considered to be one of the most important baroque ensembles of our time and we are very honoured to welcome them on their first ever visit to Montreal. This undertaking has been made possible by the support of the Belgian government.
Other well-known works of Johann Sebastian Bach will be heard in this year’s Festival: the ensemble Clavecin en concert with Luc Beauséjour will perform the Musical Offering and our yearly celebration of the Goldberg Variations will be given by a former member of the legendary ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln, the Dutch harpsichordist Léon Berben. Furthermore, the McGill Chamber Orchestra will play all four Orchestral Suites.
May that I have been able to kindle your curiosity in our Festival. On behalf of the entire team of the Montreal Bach Festival, I would like to invite you to share with us these delightful evenings and wish to thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm.
Alexandra Scheibler, Artistic Director
