London Bach Society's 28th Bachfest 2018

Mahan Esfahani and Pieter Wispelwey are two of the most charismatic and engaging artists on the performance landscape today. In this concert they come together for the first time as a new duo, combining their unique insight into the music of Bach and sharing the joy of it with us all.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the infamous European Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) that wreaked havoc in German States, reducing the population by some 40%, suffering disease and famine amidst huge loss of life. As a consequence, culture was imported from France and Italy to fill a considerable post-war void, bringing French Dancing Masters to the various Courts who taught and promoted the very latest dance steps. Bach spent his teens at Lüneburg where he met and studied with the composer Georg Böhm, who became a lifelong friend, and where at the local court he would have experienced the latest in French taste, style and fashion - including the dance. Reflecting the theme of this year's festival 'Out of conflict...the peace', as in all or most of Bach's compositions, the dance form is inherent as it is in all the works featured in this engaging programme. It is generally thought now that Bach's sonatas for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord date from the composer's years at Leipzig, probably from the 1730s and 1740s.

Be one of the first to hear these celebrated artists performing together some of Bach's deeply considered chamber music in the gracious setting of Handel's Parish Church. Not to be missed.