As part of In search of Bach, a musical epic in the footsteps of Johann Sebastian Bach (May 20-May 30, 2026)
For this new and final edition of Bach’s Paths, Pygmalion begins its journey in Wolfenbüttel, where some of Bach’s mentors, Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz, were chapel masters. This city in Lower Saxony had libraries that gave young Bach access to the works of great Italian, French and English masters in music, dance, tragedy and more. Pygmalion will pay tribute to the city’s most iconic figure, Michael Praetorius, with a performance of Klangkosmos at the Hauptkirche in Wolfenbüttel.
At the turn of the 17th century, German composers were all seeking to return to their Italian roots. Venice, with its soundscapes and spatial audacity, its cori spezzati and the triumph of polychorality, radiated its influence as far as Lutheran lands. But the Thirty Years’ War broke this momentum. Their expression became more intimate: these were the kleine geistliche Konzerte, heirs to Italian motets for solo voice and continuo.
Constructed like a large ecumenical Lutheran vespers service, this programme brings together the great German and Italian masters: Praetorius, Schütz, Scheidt, Monteverdi and Cavalli respond to each other in a play of echoes and alternations where polychorality becomes jubilation, vital overflow, sensual effusion — a celebration of a fusion that shaped European music.
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