The Leipzig Collegium Musicum Vol. 1: Music Before Bach – Reinhard Goebel

The Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum (NBCM) and its artistic director Reinhard Goebel launch a new series with The Leipzig Collegium Musicum Vol. 1: Music before Bach, offering a vivid glimpse into Leipzig’s rich musical life at the beginning of the eighteenth century. At the time, the city was home to numerous Collegia Musica – academic ensembles dedicated to the performance of the latest vocal and instrumental works – which played a central role in shaping its musical culture. Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Friedrich Fasch, Christoph Graupner and Johann David Heinichen were among the leading figures active within these circles, though much of their repertoire can only be vaguely reconstructed today.

Goebel curates a “roughly similar” programme that reflects this pre-Bach world, featuring overtures by Johann Beer and Heinichen, a horn concerto by Georg Melchior Hoffmann (all in world premiere recordings), as well as concertos by Fasch, Graupner and Telemann. The solo parts are performed by recorder player Max Volbers and Clemens Röger, principal horn of the Gewandhausorchester.

In 1729, Johann Sebastian Bach took over Telemann’s Collegium Musicum, which then performed at Zimmermann’s Coffee House and became a cornerstone of Leipzig’s musical life, ultimately leading to the founding of the Großes Concert in 1743 and the Gewandhausorchester. Founded in 1979 by members of the Gewandhausorchester with Max Pommer, the NBCM has since established an international reputation through acclaimed recordings, and since 2021 has been led by Reinhard Goebel, a pioneer of historically informed performance and founder of Musica Antiqua Köln