Rick Fulker: At the press conference you indicated that this year’s ticket sales may set a new record. What do you think the reason for that is?
Michael Maul: Thus far we’ve been selling 10-15 percent more tickets than in our previous record year. And we have considerably more events this time. Normally you might think that the same number of people would turn up and spread themselves out among the additional concerts. But that’s not what happened. Quite simply, even more people came.
And why?
I don’t want to say it’s because of the program alone, even though I hope that’s part of it. In recent years we’ve welcomed the worldwide Bach family to the Bachfest Leipzig, in part by inviting semi-professional Bach choirs and amateur choirs, not just to listen but also to perform along with the great ones. Last season there were forty Bach choirs here. Some brought along their own orchestras.
I think these ensembles have become the world’s best Bach influencers. They go back home and talk about what a nice time they had in Leipzig. Either they return or they convince friends to come. It’s not always the same people. The regulars make up about ten percent of visitors. Last year nearly forty percent were here for the first time.
How much of your audience comes from abroad?
Last year it was about forty percent. And about eighty percent of those who come from Germany are not from the region but tourists who stay a few days.
One argument in favor of public support for culture festivals is that visitors pour more money into the local economy than the city pays out in the form of subsidies. Can you document this?
We learned from questionaires that guests stay an average of six days and, apart from purchasing tickets, spend about 200 euros a day in the city. Now, we know exactly how many tickets are sold but not exactly how many individuals are in attendance. But it does seem that the average visitor will hear an average of six concerts.
Do the math, and you find these people pump five to eight million euros into the local economy. Maybe even ten million.
Our total budget is 3.5 million. The city contributes 1.35 million but gets several times that amount back. Add the image factor, which can’t be quantified. A good return on a city’s sustainable investment in culture.
Do you expect the level of public funding to remain stable?
Yes. The city of Leipzig has contributed the same amount from 2008 until recent years. During which we’ve more than tripled our proceeds and more than doubled the number of visitors. I’ve worked on getting the subsidy raised substantially because it’s become increasingly difficult to maintain a full-spectrum program. This year public funding grew by 350,000 euros, and there were substantial additional resources from third parties.
But we still need to cover about 40-50% of the total budget through ticket sales. We’ll need to take in 1.5 million euros this year to break even, but we’re on target. In the 2014-2017 seasons in comparison, proceeds from ticket sales were about 600,000 euros. So we’ve substantially increased our intake – by the way, without drastically raising prices.
Because many visitors come from far away and stay longer, we don’t have the main events on the weekends but spread them out evenly over the course of eleven festival days. Apart from concerts, that means readings, excursions, lectures – just about everything. I think this year’s program is the most varied ever. It even includes an augmented reality show: Virtual Bach.
Of legacy media and influencers
I remember a time when public broadcasters in Germany would scramble over who gets to record what at the Bachfest. With far fewer concert recordings being made by the legacy media nowadays, what alternatives have you found? And how important is that for the festival?
Media reports remain very important. They document what goes on here. And they’re effective marketing. But the media landscape in general is undergoing a major transformation.
Classical music critiques on the culture pages of major newspapers are becoming rare. Regrettably, but we have to live with it. Many music journalists are frustrated because they don’t get much space.
So we’re looking for formats beyond the classical newspaper critique that will generate interest .
The evolution of the media gives us a chance to reach our audience directly through our own reports. So we issue short video clips as appetizers, with daily reports and concert excerpts conveying the atmosphere.
Social media is another leg to stand on. We’ve expanded and professionalized our activities there in the past ten years and have lots of followers. A big team is at work, and friends of the Bachfest do their part. We invite influencers active in the field of classical music who report extensively and authentically. They convey the atmosphere too. I think these things work.
Of course I’m thrilled if a conventional critic notices that the Bachfest is more than just a random succession of concerts with big names. The Münchner Merkur newspaper calls us „the world’s most diversified festival dedicated to a composer.“ I wouldn’t be surprised if that was really true.
But you asked about concert broadcasts. Broadcasting corporations have reduced or eliminated their budgets for this. I’m happy to have Central German Radio as a strong media partner though. Or Deutschlandfunk Kultur, which this year recorded the St. John Passion for example.
During the pandemic and afterwards we did a lot of live streaming, partly with public broadcasting partners, but had to cover more and more of the cost ourselves – and no resulting income. This year we cut back on extensive streaming activity.
If I do a live stream, I have absolutely no idea how many people it reaches. We’d do more of it if we had a reason to – and the necessary additional funding. Of course there are people who love Bach but can’t come for whatever reason, and I’d like them to participate too. But it’s essential for the Bachfest to have people actually travel to Leipzig. And for that to happen, we need a good, and wide-ranging, program. I can take the 30,000 euros that a good stream costs and invest that into two or three more big concerts. Everything now points to prioritizing the live experience.
Genius loci
While sitting in St. Thomas’ Church the other day – John Eliot Gardiner was conducting – my mind turned to that authentic location. It’s known that audiences are affected in a special way when they listen to Bach at the source. But how about the musicians? Do they maybe feel obliged to give their all, and then some? Musicians should actually always want to give their best! And yet – is there something about the place that motivates them to give a little extra?
That’s what they often tell me. The conductor Ton Koopman, for instance, always says, „In Leipzig, in Bach’s churches, we have to be even better because he’s listening!“ After that wonderful concert by the Cappella Mediterranea led by Leonardo Garcia Alarcón, I went up to him. With tears in his eyes, he said, „Michael, that was the most emotional, most moving concert I’ve ever conducted because it was in Bach’s own church!“
The audiences are pretty special too. They’ve traveled here from all over the world specifically for the music. They’re extremely attentive and generous with applause. That inspires the artists too.
Looking in unexpected corners
A few years ago you discovered a previously unknown composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. Any music scholar would dream of finding a lost cantata cycle or a passion. But how likely are such finds?
I absolutely wouldn’t exclude the possibility. Of course, they’re becoming rarer because the more that turns up, the less there is lying around undiscovered. We have no idea how much might still be out there. Usually these things are found in completely unexpected places.
Coincidence, fortuitous circumstances, diligence, a spirit of research – all that has to come together for a discovery to be made. So I’m not making any predictions. I don’t think anything much will be found in major music compilations though. These have already been combed over. I made my discovery, the unknown Bach aria Alles mit Gott (Everything with God) in a place where no one had thought to look: Bach wrote the notes down on two empty pages of a tribute from Weimar dated 1713. He didn’t sign his name, but I recognized the handwriting. A librarian couldn’t have known that.
So nowadays discoveries are made in historic documents that have been ignored heretofore and whose subject matter has something to do with music.
Sometimes you’ll find musical treasures mistakenly grouped together with other content. I discovered Bach’s earliest autographs in 2005 at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar not in a music collection but among theological writings in the category of monk and monastery literature. This is detective work, and major finds have many contingencies.
But I’m optimistic that further discoveries will be made, including ones related to Bach. We have a major, ongoing, in-house, 25-year research project with half a dozen people regularly combing through the Central German Archive to locate and edit all existing documents of the Bach family. So we’re tilting the scales to our side every day.
Does a lot remain to be done?
Yes, and there’s a lot to be found. Last year a colleague of mine discovered an unknown document by Bach, a report for one of his solo singers in Leipzig. It was right here in the city archive in a spot where no one had looked before. So I think there’ll be more surprises .
The Bach hit parade
A few years ago the Bachfest focused on „Bach’s 30 Best Cantatas“ as chosen by experts. I’m sure there was an outcry from people who were disappointed that their favorites weren’t among the thirty. Next year you’re doing something both similar and different: a ranking of the Top 50 Bach cantatas as determined by popular vote. Do I see a connection here?
Absolutely! The Bach Cantata Ring was a big success back then. With a wink, we said: We’re performing Bach’s thirty best cantatas knowing full well that nobody can say which ones are the best thirty because Bach composed so much incredibly good music.
This time I wanted to do something different because the festival theme is about many voices. There’s a nice analogy to Bach’s polyphonic music, where each voice is extremely independent, more so than with any other composer. In modern terms you could say that there’s democracy in Bach’s music. So the motto next year is „In Dialogue.“
In the programs you’ll find a dialogue between Bach and important composers he esteemed. And between Bach and his contemporary critics like Johann Adolf Scheibe: „Bach Versus Scheibe“ is one program. Or Bach and his 19th century influencers. Or his role models.
We had the first dialogue about the Bachfest 2026 with our audience. Last year we passed out thousands of flyers and added an online survey, asking people to please tell us their own Top 10 cantatas by Bach. Not the best, but the favorites. After six months of voting, we had over a thousand responses and added up the results just like they do at the Eurovision Song Contest. In the World Wide Bach Cantata Contest, twelve points went to first place, ten points to second, eight to third, and so on.
Then it dawned on me that this is nothing but the good old hit parade of the 70s, 80s and 90s, when people were glued to their radios all night, recording on cassette and hanging on till the end when the Number One song was announced and played.
So I thought, why not do this with Bach? Every Bach fan knows that there are practically no bad Bach cantatas. And when you see whom we’ve lined up for these twelve performances, you know they’ll be good. Once again we’re assembling the grand old masters of Bach interpretation, the Big Three: Gardiner, Herreweghe and Koopman. Add Rademann and Rudolf Lutz – he’s pushing 80 as well. It’s really the crème de la crème.
We’ll present the cantatas in a countdown, No. 50 to No. 1, but not disclosing the programs beforehand. All we’re saying at this point is: The first concert has Nos. 50 to 48, the second Nos. 47 to 44, and so on, down to the Top Four in the last concert. But of course everybody knows that whether 40 or 2, it’ll be a fantastic piece.
I’ll spill one secret though: O Ewigkeit du Donnerwort (O Eternity, You Word of Thunder), BWV 20, is ranked No. 50. This big, two-part work is a nice way to kick off the cycle I think, because it begins with an opening chorus that sounds like a French overture.
I’m certain there won’t be any unpleasant surprises. I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be exciting to the end. A hit parade with that old, ostensibly dusty thing, a cantata by Bach – which actually isn’t dusty at all. What a nice story!
If I were still in radio I’d want to take the Bach Top Fifty right back to radio and broadcast them in order.
So I’ll spill a secret: we’re in negotiations to do exactly that.
Wonderful!
We’re looking for various partnerships so that radio listeners can hear the whole countdown.
And another thing: Rather than just lining up the cantatas back to back, we’ll lead into each with a motet by Schütz or Schein that fits the following cantata. For example, the second cantata Bach wrote in Leipzig is Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (The Heavens Declare the Glory of God), and Schütz set a motet to the same text. It’ll prepare you for the piece you’re about to hear and give you a little breather.
I’m sure of one thing: It’ll be a fest! In between, András Schiff will play a big cycle of keyboard music with Parts I, II and IV of Bach’s Clavier-Übung and The Art of the Fugue. There’s no overlap. Those who want to hear either the complete cantata cycle or the piano cycle or both can order tickets exclusively now before pre-ticket sales for the individual events begin in November. There’s a logistical reason for this. In St. Nicholas’ Church, there aren’t many seats in the top price category, and they usually sell out quickly. So as soon as an event is sold out in one category, we can no longer offer the complete cycle as such.
That’s why we’re offering only the complete cycles for the time being. A lot of friends of Bach are already buying tickets. So putting the large and not terribly well known cantata repertory at the heart of the Bachfest turns out to have been the right decision again. It’s a deft way to play our hand at the authentic location of Bach, Cantor of St. Thomas’.
