Bachcelona: a love story starring Bach and Barcelona
The festival enters its sixth edition with concerts in iconic places, conferences, documentary screenings and plenty more.
From 19 to 24 July, Barcelona will host the sixth edition of the Barcelona Bach Festival, known as Bachcelona, a project that came into being in 2013 as way to enrich the already existing Bach Zum Mitsingen, which, from 2011, has offered performances of Bach's cantatas in a participatory format. These cantatas can also be enjoyed this year: they will be performed on 19 and 20 July at the Petit Palau at Palau de la Música. But Bachcelona goes further and offers not only concerts, but also many other activities in which the music and figure of Bach are the protagonists.
On Friday 20 July, the silent movie classic The Crowd by King Vidor will be screened at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, where musicians D.J Köthen, Cels Campos and Àlex Rodríguez will be performing compositions by Bach. On the same day at the Sant Pau Catalan Modernist ensemble you will have the opportunity to hear versions of Bach’s music adapted to the language of jazz and the rhythmic interplay of modern music. On 21 July, Ton Koopman, one of the top experts on the composer's music, will give a lecture at Palau Baró de Quadras, while cellist Clara Pouvreau will bring the sensitivity of Bach to Casa Vicens. Also on Saturday, the Bachmosferes will take place at the Frederic Marès Museum, a musical itinerary that ends with a wine tasting.
Musician and music writer Joan Vives will be offering a guide tour of Barcelona’s Music Museum through the prism of Bach on 22 July. If you want to introduce your kids to the melodies of the baroque composer, take them to the Petit Palau on Sunday 22 July at 97pm, where Ton Koopman will perform an adaptation of Don Quixote based on baroque music and dances. A concert for voice and organ at Palau Güell on Monday 23 July, and the closing performance of the festival featuring accordionist Philippe Thuriot at the Fundació Enric Miralles on the evening of 24 July, are just a few of the other activities that Bachcelona will be bringing to the city.
Check out the complete schedule at the following link.