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Bachfest Leipzig 2018

Encore at the final performance of the weekend

As part of the Bach Cantata Ring 2018 project, Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras presented a weekend of concerts at this year’s BachFest in Leipzig, performing a selection of Bach’s sacred Cantatas alongside the composer’s finest interpreters and performers.

The initial idea for the Leipzig Ring of Cantatas came from John Eliot Gardiner, president of the Bach Archiv, who envisaged performing 30 sacred cantatas, across nine concerts during one weekend, alternating between the churches of St Thomas and St Nicholas. John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists were joined by Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Masaaki Suzuki with the Bach Collegium Japan, Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Gaechinger Cantorey, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Thomaskantor Gotthold Schwarz.

For this special event John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras performed three concerts that included a selection of Bach’s most popular cantatas, alongside motets by other composers chosen to bring to life the message of each cantata. The final concert was rounded off in the most memorable fashion; an encore in which the audience of the Nikolaikirche sang along to the final chorale of BWV 140.