MATTHÄUS-PASSION

The Gaechinger Cantorey is the ensemble of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart. In it, a baroque orchestra and a hand-picked choir combine to form a finely coordinated original sound system. Under the direction of academy director Hans-Christoph Rademann, this ensemble has made it its mission to spread the “Stuttgart Bach style” internationally.
The tonal backbone of this characteristic Bach style is embodied by two replicas of original instruments commissioned by the Bach Academy from the workshop of the legendary Bach contemporary Gottfried Silbermann (1683–1753): the replica of a chest organ by Silbermann that was previously discovered in Seerhausen, Saxony, which has been part of the ensemble since 2016, and the replica of a Silbermann harpsichord, which has completed the ensemble since 2021. These two true-to-the-original witnesses of baroque sound ideas form the tonal center of the Gaechinger Cantorey.
Since its re-foundation as Gaechinger Cantorey in 2016, the ensemble of the International Bach Academy has performed numerous times in Germany, such as at the Stuttgart Music Festival, the Ansbach Bach Week, the Leipzig Bach Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, in the Dresden Kulturpalast and in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, as well as abroad in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, in the USA (Fort Lauderdale, Chapel Hill, Norfolk, Princeton, Los Angeles, Irvine, Williamsburg), in Canada (Montréal) and in South America (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Bogotá) made a name for themselves.

In addition, the Gaechinger Cantorey with its director Hans-Christoph Rademann is busy recording activities. The ensemble has performed the “Christmas Oratorio”, cantatas and the two Passions by J.S. on the Stuttgart label Carus and accentus music. Bach, Handel's "Messiah", Haydn's "Creation" and other works recorded. Digital podcasts and concert streams with the Gaechinger Cantorey are also available in the Bach Academy's media library.
From May 2023 to June, the Gaechinger Cantorey under the direction of Hans-Christoph Rademann will perform all of J. S. Bach's cantatas from his first year as Leipzig St. Thomas Cantor - exactly 300 years after the historic event in 1723/1724. CD recordings of all concerts under the title VISION.BACH will be released by Hänssler Classic.
The Gaechinger Cantorey participates regularly and with conviction in the various music education formats of the International Bach Academy, which, under the motto “BachBewegt!”, invite children and young people to actively sing, dance and experience the music on stage or as listeners in the concert hall. These include family concerts, joint performances and danced interpretations of important masterpieces of oratorio literature.

The conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is an internationally sought-after performer with a broad repertoire that ranges from the rediscovery of early music to the premiere of contemporary works. The focus is on composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Heinrich Schütz. He produced a complete recording of his oeuvre for Carus Verlag. In 2023/24 he will perform all of the cantatas from J. S. Bach's first year as Leipzig Thomaskantor with the Gaechinger Cantorey under the title VISION.BACH, which will also be produced in 10 double CDs on the Hänssler Classic label.
Born in Dresden, Hans-Christoph Rademann grew up in a family of cantors in Schwarzenberg in the Ore Mountains. He was a singer in the famous Dresden Kreuzchor and studied choir and orchestra conducting at the Dresden University of Music. Shortly after starting his studies, he founded the Dresden Chamber Choir and led it to international fame. Hans-Christoph Rademann was director of the Singakademie Dresden, chief conductor of the NDR choir and led the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin from 2007 to 2015. In 2013 he was appointed head of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart as the successor to Helmuth Rilling. He re-founded their ensemble, the Gaechinger Cantorey, as an original sound ensemble. With the “BachBewegt!” program, he built up an extensive education program at the Bach Academy in Stuttgart that is unique in its level.

Guest appearances have taken him to many parts of the world, to North and South America, China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and to almost all European music metropolises. In November 2022, he opened the Montreal Bach Festival with a celebrated performance of Bach's St. John Passion. The conductor regularly collaborates with leading ensembles such as the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Collegium 1704, the Basel Sinfonieorchester, the Orchester Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Dresden Philharmonic and the Stuttgart Philharmonic.
Hans-Christoph Rademann has been awarded numerous prizes for his artistic work and his social commitment. These include the Saxon Constitutional Medal, the Art Prize of the City of Dresden, the Johann Walter Plaque, the Heinrich Schütz Prize and the Prize for European Church Music. CD recordings of his extensive discography have been made, among others. awarded the German Record Critics' Annual Prize, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Gramophone Classical Music Award, the Diapason d'Or and the Opus Klassik.
Since 2000, Hans-Christoph Rademann has been professor of choral conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden. He is also director of the Erzgebirge Music Festival, ambassador of the Erzgebirge and patron of the Christian Hospice Service Dresden.