Johann Sebastian Bach

The organist, choirmaster and composer, who was born in Eisenach in 1685 and died in Leipzig in 1750, came from a Thuringian musical dynasty. He received his training in Ohrdruf, Lüneburg and Hamburg and was first employed at the court in Weimar, at churches in the Thuringian cities Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and again at the court in Weimar. In 1717 he became Music Director at the court in Köthen, and in 1723 he succeeded Johann Kuhnau as Cantor of St Thomas‘ Church in Leipzig, with the Leipzig City Council being his employer. Bach stayed in this position until his death. His duties included responsibility for the music at St Nicholas’ Church. For the worship at St Thomas, Bach had to ensure the performance of cantatas, the majority of which Bach composed himself, sometimes under enormous time pressure. In 1736, at his own instigation, Bach received the honorary title of „Royal Court Composer of Saxony and Poland“ from King Augustus II, and in 1747 he met King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam and Berlin.
Unlike his peer George Frideric Handel, Bach never tackled the genre of opera, but many of his vocal works have been adapted for the stage, for example by George Balanchine (St Matthew Passion, Metropolitan Opera New York City 1943), Herbert Wernicke (Actus Tragicus, Basel 2000) and Ulrich Rasche (St John Passion, Stuttgart State Opera 2023). Bach‘s music also forms the basis for many dance works, such as Serge Lifar‘s Dramma per musica (Monte Carlo 1946), Roland Petit‘s Le jeune homme et la mort (Paris 1946), Jerome Robbins‘ Goldberg Variations (New York City 1971), John Neumeier‘s St Matthew Passion (Hamburg 1981) and Sasha Waltz‘s St John Passion (Salzburg 2024).