In June of 2022, I fulfilled a dream:  I attended Bachfest Leipzig.  It was wondrous; I cried at the beauty of the music.  (Actually, that doesn't take much with me...)   I was awestruck by the performers, not only Ton Koopman, Andras Schiff and Angela Hewitt, but by all the lesser-known, younger individuals and groups.  

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The lineup for June 2023 includes again Ton Koopman, but also Lang Lang  and Andris Nelsons.   Although the program is not fully public as of August 2022, but with the usual 3 to 4 concerts scheduled daily, we are sure to find plenty of brilliant music to sink our ears into.  Actually, for me, it was a total sensory experience, being surrounded by Bach's churches, true Bachophiles and the ambience of Leipzig.   ​

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We will start our trip in Eisenach, where Bach was born and schooled and where Luther holed up in the Wartburg Castle to translate the Bible into German – and to escape persecution from the Catholic Church. Richard Wagner also stayed in the Thuringia town for a while, where his Tannhaeuser opera gathered in his mind. (There is also an auto museum: various cars were made there from 1896 to 1991 when the Trabi-like Wartburgs were no longer desirable.)

 

Ten days in Leipzig will give us ample time to get to know the very walkable town and experience its intriguing alleys, canals and markets. We’ll visit the Bach Museum and Mendelssohnhaus.  During your free time, if there is any, you might want to visit the Grassi instrument museum and the Kunsthalle. 

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And of course, we will indulge our senses with splendid music, thanks to the Bach Festival. We’ll hear the gamut of Bach’s known work: sonatas, cello suites, passions, masses, cantatas, motets, fugues, partitas, and organ music (in the Sankt Thomas Kirche where Bach worked for so many years).

 

We’ll have to balance all this heady culture with good food, beer, and wine. Then we’ll walk that off in the botanical gardens.

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In Eisenach, we will be staying at the Glockenhof Eisenach right in the middle of town.   In Leipzig, we will be staying at the Innside Melia, from which you can look out the breakfast room windows and see the Sankt Thomas Kirche across the street.

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