For the last 81 years it has hosted the Bach Festival - nine days of concerts and other events in a variety of programmes and venues around the city. From 28 June to 6 August.

The first of the major concerts will be on 28 June, when the Munich Chamber Orchestra, directed by Reinhard Goebel, will perform a programme including works Telemann, Kraus, Mozart and Bach. On 29 June, there will be a performance of Bach’s B-minor Mass by the Süddeutscher Kammerchor and the Main-Barockorchester, Frankfurt under the direction of Gerhard Jenemann. This is followed on 30 June by a concert of works for flute by Telemann and Bach with the Munich Bach-Collegium, conducted by Christian Kabitz, and an organ recital by Edgar Krapp, featuring works by Bach and Mozart.

The Endellion String Quartet will perform quartets by Kraus, Mozart and Beethoven on 1 August. On 3 August, the Festival Orchestra and Choir of the German Youth Orchestra present a programme of works by Bach, Telemann and Graupner, and on the same day the Hamburg Vocal Ensemble will perform works by Kraus and Mozart. On 5 August, the Chorus Musicus Cologne and Das Neue Orchester will perform Mozart’s Mass in C minor, KV 427 under the direction of Christoph Spering. On 6 August, Musica Antiqua Cologne, under the direction of Reinhard Goebel, will play works by Erlebach, Pachelbel, Biber, Caldara and Vivaldi.

Coinciding with the festival, the city’s churches will host numerous concerts.