Ensemble

Gaechinger Cantorey

Gaechinger Cantorey, Hans-Christoph Rademann © photo hs
Gaechinger Cantorey, Hans-Christoph Rademann (Liederhalle Stuttgart)

The Gaechinger Cantorey is the ensemble of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. It combines a baroque orchestra and a hand-picked choir which together form a perfectly-blended early music ensemble. Under the baton of Akademie Director Hans-Christoph Rademann, the ensemble flies the flag for the “Stuttgart Bach style” on the international stage.

The backbone to this distinctive Bach style sound is embodied in two replica instruments commissioned by the Bachakademie of originals from the workshop of Bach’s legendary contemporary Gottfried Silbermann (1683–1753): in 2016 the Akademie acquired a copy of a chamber organ by Silbermann discovered in Seerhausen, Saxony, and a copy of a Silbermann harpsichord completed the ensemble’s keyboard instruments in 2021. These two examples of a baroque sound faithful to the original form the heart of the Gaechinger Cantorey’s distinctive sound.

Copy of a chamber organ by Silbermann (Orgelwerkstatt Wegscheider, Dresden) © photo Holger Schneider
Copy of a chamber organ by Silbermann (Orgelwerkstatt Wegscheider, Dresden)

Since its refounding as the Gaechinger Cantorey in 2016, the Internationale Bachakademie’s ensemble has made numerous appearances in Germany, performing at the Musikfest Stuttgart, Bachwoche Ansbach, Bachfest Leipzig, Rheingau Musik Festival, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Dresden Kulturpalast and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. Further afield, performances at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris, in the USA (Fort Lauderdale, Chapel Hill, Norfolk, Princeton, Los Angeles, Irvine, Williamsburgh), in Canada (Montréal) and in South America (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Bogotá) have further established the ensemble’s reputation.

Gaechinger Cantorey, Hans-Christoph Rademann © photo hs
Gaechinger Cantorey, Hans-Christoph Rademann (Wagenhallen Stuttgart)

As well as live performances, the Gaechinger Cantorey and its director Hans-Christoph Rademann has a busy recording schedule. The ensemble released the Christmas Oratorio, Cantatas and the two Passions by J.S. Bach, Handel’s Messiah, Haydns The Creation and further works on the Stuttgart Carus label and on the accentus music label. Numerous podcasts and concert streams with the Gaechinger Cantorey have been made available to watch in the Bachakademie Mediathek.

From May 2023 to June 2024, the Gaechinger Cantorey, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann, will perform all of J.S. Bach's cantatas from his first year as Leipzig's Thomaskantor – exactly 300 years after the historic event in 1723/1724. CD recordings of all concerts in various churches and concert halls in Stuttgart and the surrounding area will be released by Hänssler Classic.

The Gaechinger Cantorey is committed to the Internationale Bachakademie’s varied music outreach initiatives, regularly participating in the “BachBewegt!” programme which actively invites children and young people to sing, dance and experience music, either on stage or as listeners in the concert hall. This includes family concerts, joint performances of Haydn’s The Seasons and The Creation, Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Gloria as well as danced interpretations of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Mozart’s Requiem. In 2017 the choreographic interpretation of Bach’s St Matthew Passion was released as a DVD on the accentus music label.