Bach and Mozart in Leipzig

Leipzig, Germany has quite a rich history when it comes to music, not to mention its religious history (think Luther and Eck). Fitting then that I should visit the church where Bach was the Cantor from 1723-1750 for a concert / service including some of his music.

The St. Thomas Church was founded likely in the 12th or 13th century, but its existing building wasn’t consecrated until 1496. It’s been renovated since then, most recently ending in 2000 with a new Bach organ. I got to hear it played, along with the boys choir that Bach directed. Not the same boys, though. They’d be really old by now.

The show was some Bach (all the titles were in German so I’ll skip writing them here) and some Hugo Distler. They were, indeed, distinguishable from each other. The acoustics were just about right for that style of music and the organ sounded fantastic. The renovation, specifically the ceiling paint treatment, left a bit to be desired though. I was, in fact, quite surprised at the ceiling style. It seemed distinctly *not* Christian. Even so, I really enjoyed the music. The sermon, of course, didn’t really resonate with me… 😉

That very same evening, I discovered that Mozart’s Magic Flute was on at the opera house, so I went and checked it out. The program had the plot summary translated into English by someone who clearly was not a native English speaker. It was sort of understandable but not really. And, of course, all the dialog was in German. But the music, again, was excellent. The soprano playing the queen was absolutely fantastic.

Was nice to change gears a bit and do some classical for a change. 😉

V-