Since its founding in 1981 by Helmuth Rilling, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart has been dedicated to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach through benchmark-setting performances and vibrant educational initiatives. This mission also embraces the music of Bach’s contemporaries, as well as his predecessors and successors. With Bach at its core, the Bachakademie’s repertoire encompasses sacred vocal music, oratorios, and choral symphonic works from the 17th century to the present day.
Since 2013, the institution has been led by conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann, who in 2016 unified the former ensembles Gächinger Kantorei (choir) and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (orchestra) into a newly restructured ensemble consisting of a reformed choir and a newly founded Baroque orchestra under the name Gaechinger Cantorey. In this ensemble, a Baroque orchestra and a carefully selected choir form a finely tuned original-sound ensemble. Under the direction of artistic director Hans-Christoph Rademann, the ensemble has made it its mission to promote an internationally recognized “Stuttgart Bach style.”
The Internationales Bachfest Stuttgart, a two-week festival, brings together young and seasoned artists from around the world who devote themselves to Bach and his era. Additionally, the Bachakademie maintains its own subscription concert series in Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg and is actively engaged in a busy concert schedule both nationally and internationally.
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“What Hans-Christoph Rademann, his Gaechinger Cantorey, and the carefully selected soloists reveal here in terms of vocal-instrumental balance, tonal refinement, and rhetorically informed artistry surely represents the pinnacle of historically informed performance today!”
concerti, 13 november 2023
“To the audience of 2023, it spoke directly from the heart.”
bachtrack, 16 july 2023
PROJECTS 2026/27 – A SELECTION
18 – 24 January 2027 and upon request
MISSA SOLEMNIS
Christiane Karg, soprano / Ulrike Malotta, alto / Benjamin Bruns, tenor / Markus Eiche, bass / Chor und Orchester der Gaechinger Cantorey / Hans-Christoph Rademann, conductor
For the Beethoven anniversary year 2027, Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Gaechinger Cantorey present a work of superlatives: Beethoven himself described his Missa Solemnis as his opus summum—for it shatters all previously known boundaries. It was premiered not in a church service but in the concert hall. Conceived not as a liturgical work but almost symphonically, it demands the utmost of its performers—much like the “Ninth,” which was composed not coincidentally shortly thereafter..
L. v. Beethoven: Missa solemnis op.123
Christiane Karg © Gisela Schenker
23, 24 & 26. March 2027
JOHANNESPASSION
Rowan Pierce, soprano / Henriette Gödde, alto / Patrick Grahl, tenor – Evangelist / Tobias Berndt, bass – Pilatus and Arien / Markus Eiche, bass – Christus / Chor der Gaechinger Cantorey / Kammerorchester Basel / Hans-Christoph Rademann, conductor
Under the direction of Hans-Christoph Rademann, the Gaechinger Cantorey has made it its mission to promote internationally a “Stuttgart Bach style.” Among the many milestones the ensemble has achieved, the St John Passion stands out in particular: its emotional complexity is explored in great depth by ensemble and conductor alike and performed with compelling passion. In the 2026/27 season, Rademann and the choir of the Gaechinger Cantorey shed new light on the work from the perspective of a later era, presenting it together with the Kammerorchester Basel in the version premiered in Düsseldorf in 1851 by Robert Schumann.
J. S. Bach: Johannespassion BWV 245 in the arrangement by R. Schumann
Kammerochester Basel © Matthias Müller
