It certainly says a great deal about one of the declared aims of the Bachfest’s Artistic Director Albert Hartinger that of these performances, no fewer than 22 will be freely accessible: “It is our wish that the whole city will celebrate with us”. This is reflected in the fact that a remarkable number of ensembles and soloists from Salzburg, the Mozarteum University and the Musikum, local schools and choirs occupy a central position in the festival programming.

The intention behind this occasion is to make it a great “encounter between classical and modern, tradition and innovation, old and young”. The festival will open on 4 October with a concert in the historic auditorium, the programme including Bach’s Cantata BWV 214 and the Orchestral Suite No.4 performed by the Camerata Salzburg and the Collegium Vocale Salzburg under Christophe Coin.

Among further highlights will be recitals by Benjamin Schmid, who is devoting two evenings to the complete solo violin Sonatas and Partitas. The Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg and the Salzburger Bachchor will be performing Bach’s B-minor Mass under their principal conductor Ivor Bolton, and the festival will also be welcoming the Consortium Quatuor Mosaiques, the virtuoso harpsichordist Florian Birsak with the Bachconsort Salzburg, the Chorus sine nomine, violinist Irmgard Schaller, L’Orfeo Barockorchester under Michi Gaigg and Jacques Loussier with “Play Bach”.

A central figure will be the distinguished Bach interpreter, conductor and musicological researcher Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who together with the Concentus Musicus Wien and the Arnold Schönberg Chor will bring the festivities to a close with a programme of Bach cantatas. In an unusual series of events, the Orgelpfad (Itinerary of the Organs) will take listeners from the Pfarrkirche Mülln via, for example, the Franziskanerkirche, Kapuzinerkirche, Pfarrkirche St. Andrä and Kajetanerkirche to the Stiftskirche St. Peter, bringing them first performances of organ works as well as renderings from Bach’s organ oeuvre along the way.

In addition to these concerts, a symposium will be held by the Mozarteum and Paris Lodron universities dealing with the reception of Bach in Austria past and present; the Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik will be putting on a concert of Bach and new music; and the Salzburg Museum will feature in the Bach Festival by showing tailor-made exhibitions. In the historic Ständesaal of the Neue Residenz, home to the museum, visitors will be invited to experience not only concerts but also “Bach and Literature”.

More information is available at www.salzburger-bachgesellschaft.at