PROGRAMME
J. S. Bach: H-Moll Messe

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NEARLY 800 YEARS OLD, THE CHOIR CONDUCTED BY BACH IN HIS DAYS, WILL INTERPRET ONE OF HIS GREAT WORKS

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The choir of the Thomaskirche looks back proudly on nearly 800 years of tradition. The Thomaskirche was established as a choral foundation in Leipzig in 1212 by members of the Augustine order. The Thomasschule was chiefly intended to train boys for liturgical singing and as servers. When the Reformation reached Leipzig in 1539, the school was secularized and its administration passed into the hands of the city. In the 20th century, now highly acclaimed internationally through its concert tours, notwithstanding all manner of state interference, the Thomaskantors holding office at this time - Karl Straube, Günther Ramin, Kurt Thomas, Erhard Mauersberger and Hans-Joachim Rotzsch - were able to uphold the fundamental ecclesiastical function of the choir and to maintain the continuity of the Bach tradition into our time.

The Bach Orchestra was created in 1962 by Prof. Gerhard Bosse, who for a long period was conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. Under his leadership the orchestra has toured more than forty countries, to great acclaim, receiving invitations from the most important musical centres and festivals. It specializes in Bach’s works and includes compositions from the Baroque, Pre-Classic and Classical periods.

Georg Christoph Biller, conductor and Thomaskantor was a student in the school, receiving there is first instructions in conducting. He later specialized in the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Academy, Leipzig, creating in 1976 the Leipziger Vocalensemble. Conducting the Gewandhaus choir between 1980 and 1991 and dedicating himself to teaching, he also created the Arion-Collegium in 1982. That same year he graduated in Conducting from the Summer Academy, Mozarteum Salzburg. From 1983 onwards he is a member of the Academy of Fine Arts, Berlin. In 1985 he won the Osaka prize and in 1992 was designated Thomaskantor nr. 16 in Leipzig (after Johann Sebastian Bach who conducted the choir from 1723 to 1750).