Bach and the great Leipzig audition

Bach appears to us today as a major and indisputable figure in the history of music. To imagine that he could have suffered from the comparison with his contemporaries seems implausible; and yet...

When he applied in 1723 for the position of Kantor of the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, Bach was not the favorite candidate. The first choice would have been Christoph Graupner, but the latter declined the offer and preferred the Prince of Hesse-Darmstad. The renowned and prolific Georg Philip Telemann, founder of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig and a friend of Bach's, applied for the post - only to withdraw his application almost immediately and turn to Hamburg. This left only Johann Sebastian Bach, with whom St. Thomas had to make do... and that's when the composer, then thirty-eight years old, created the first version of his St. John Passion for Holy Week.

For this concert, Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew invite us to delve into the musical universe of the time, imagining a "grand audition" to decide between Bach and his contemporaries. A fictional reconstruction, with cantatas to support it... and a digest of the best that Germany had to offer at the beginning of the 18th century.

And after the concert, do not miss the "Meditation at the Dawn of Night" (included in the ticket)!