The Bach Days festival takes place at the Cathedral from March 21 to 31. These two days are significant in music history as the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.
The idea of the festival belongs to Alexander Knyazev, a famous cellist and organist who is a member of the artistic council of the Cathedral. All festival programs are built around the music of Bach, his contemporaries, predecessors, and successors.
The festival opens with the Collegium Musicum ensemble on March 21 at 18:00 under the direction of Oleg Romanenko and the titular organist of the Cathedral, Mansur Yusupov.
Collegium Musicum has been touring for 9 seasons with the project "All Bach Cantatas," performed on historical instruments.
At the Cathedral, the musicians will present three Bach cantatas: "God's Will Be Done," "What God Wills, Always Shall Be," "Take What Is Yours and Go" — written in the 1720s. During this time, Bach moved to Leipzig and became a cantor at the Thomaskirche. The composer wrote music for the city's main churches and the student ensemble of Leipzig University — the Collegium Musicum.
Along with the cantatas, the artists will perform the hymn of Albrecht Hohenzollern, the first Duke of Prussia and founder of the University of Königsberg, who found his final resting place near the Cathedral.
On March 22 at 18:00, the concert "Bach — 1685 — Handel" will take place.
Georg Friedrich Handel was born almost a month before Johann Sebastian Bach and almost 90 miles away. The musicians had mutual friends and colleagues. They knew and admired each other's work but never met in person.
Soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia Alexandra Durseneva (mezzo-soprano) and laureate of the Organist of the Year award Daniel Zaretsky have created a concert-dialogue of the two geniuses.
On March 27 at 19:00, the concert "Organ Booklet" will take place. Honored Artist of Russia, organist and professor Alexander Fiseysky will perform all chorale preludes from the collection "Organ Booklet." The structure is based on the calendar of church holidays from Advent to Easter. These short works represent an example of Baroque organ music.
The concert will open the cycle "All Organ Works of Bach," which will be performed at the Cathedral over several years by Alexander Fiseysky.
On March 29 at 18:00, the concert "Bach and B-A-C-H" will take place.
In the unfinished cycle "The Art of Fugue," Johann Sebastian Bach first used the musical motif B-A-C-H, where the letters of his surname correspond to musical notes.
Since then, this musical autograph has been used by subsequent generations of musicians when creating homages to Bach or quoting him.
In 1985, musicologist Ulrich Prince found 409 works by 330 authors based on the BACH motif. Maria Mokhova will perform music by three composers who once sent messages to eternity to Johann Sebastian Bach himself.
On March 31 at 19:00, the festival closing and the concert "Musical Bible" will take place.
Bach's partitas, English suites, and toccata close the festival. The organ and keyboard heritage of the composer is performed by Alexander Knyazev.
"I play Bach, and I feel good. Part of this universal harmony passes into me. You touch something so high that your life changes," Knyazev says about his feelings.
Johann Sebastian Bach enriched both organ and keyboard art. He was a deeply religious person and believed that music should serve God.