The Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum, under the direction of Reinhard Goebel and outstanding soloists such as Max Volbers on recorder and Clemens Röger on horn, present the first instalment in the series The Leipzig Collegium Musicum, Vol. 1: Music before Bach, offering a vivid exploration of a formative musical world. The term Collegium Musicum refers to an assembly of musicians who gathered regularly, under direction, to study and perform vocal and instrumental works, an idea that flourished in many cities, yet found particular resonance in Leipzig. By the early 18th century, this landscape of competing ensembles and personalities stood on the threshold of transformation, as musical life gradually evolved towards the later institutional structures that would shape the city's enduring legacy. In practice, however, these societies existed within a complex and often unsettled environment, where overlapping groups, shifting roles, and competing interests made the musical scene difficult to define and reconstruct with certainty. This programme offers a glimpse into that dynamic and, at times, elusive world, where music was shaped as much by collaboration and exchange as by individual voices. The works presented reflect a period before Bach's arrival in Leipzig, when compositional language was still evolving and stylistic boundaries were fluid. Drawing on influences from across Europe while asserting their own character, these pieces reveal a rich interplay of invention, contrast, and expressive immediacy. Composers such as Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Friedrich Fasch, and Georg Melchior Hoffmann were part of this environment, where musical ideas were shared, adapted, and developed through collective practice.

Sand and Foam by William Knight uses words from Kahlil Gibran's book of the same name. The book is made up of hundreds of aphorisms, each beautiful and thought provoking. With all my music I try to follow the words of the poet and bring out the natu-ral rhythm and beauty of the text. Each aphorism can be taken by itself and offers the reader or listener a chance to reflect. My compilation of the aphorisms is an observation on the creation and fall of mankind: It presents a warning. However, when the apocalypse comes this is not in a calamitous way, what will come will come. Life and death present the beginning and the end but not apart from each other. After we are gone life will carry on and our footsteps betwixt the sand and the foam will be washed away by the sea. Missa pro defunctis by Victor Kioulaphides. Death is as univer-sally inevitable as it is generally misunderstood. Art and music helps- or does it? Vivid imagery and dramatic sounds capture the heartbreak, the devasta-ting loss felt by those left behind. Yet for the one that actually passes, often little is expressed. The Requiem Mass speaks of the eternal peace, the perfect conclusion, the ethereal serenity that is death. And this is the story this score retells. If the listener is left at peace, the music has succeeded. Het Nederlands Bach Consort shows courage in it's productions and does not shy away from experimentation. Artistic directors Heleen Koele (sop-rano) and Sytse Buwalda (counter-tenor) have both earned their spurs as singers and complement each other well with their different areas of expertise. All this leads to a daring approach based on the old foundation of Bach: "As a consort, we feel the urgency to translate our observations of social trends into an artistic form. In doing so, we always draw on the power of music. Raw, tranquil, abrasive, and comforting. In line with current trends, we commission compositions from established and young compo-sers, such as Victor Kioulaphides, Monique Krus, William Knight, and Lotte Pen. We give the resounding past a foundation in the present... Always accessible, never easy." - "Sand and Foam" by William Knight (b.1987) sets selected aphorisms from Kahlil Gibran to music, inviting reflection on humanity's creation, fall, and the quiet inevitability of the end. - In Knight's vision, life and death are inseparable, and after we are gone the traces of our existence are ultimately washed away "betwixt the sand and the foam." - "Missa pro defunctis" by Victor Kioulaphides (b.1961) retells the Requi-em's promise of eternal peace, aiming to leave the listener with serenity rather than spectacle. - Het Nederlands Bach Consort is known for courageous, experimental Bach-rooted programming that translates social trends into accessible, never-easy performances and commissions from both established and emerging composers.

Schone Welt, wo bist du? These words by Friedrich Schiller are the first of this new project, an exploration of existence, wandering and mourning. Coline Dutilleul has conceived a programme in which keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Lieder by Franz Schubert echo themes of melancholy and death: inner states that music makes perceptible through tempo, texture and harmony. These works trace a journey marked by absence and resilience in which agitation, renunciation and appeasement follow one another like the stages of mourning.