BACH DAYS MUSIC FESTIVAL

22 March 2021

The Bach Days Music Festival, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, opened on Sunday in Kaliningrad. The Cathedral of Kaliningrad is the organizer of this creative project with the participation of eminent musicians. For five evenings under the arches of the historical building of the Cathedral, where the largest organ complex in Russia is installed, on the 336th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, the works of this great composer of the Baroque era will sound.

The cathedral was built in 1380. During the Second World War the cathedral was badly damaged, but in 1992 the restoration of the historical building began, its external appearance was put in order, and then the internal one.

The first wind organ was installed in the concert hall, to which a second organ was later added, which was many times larger. The total number of registers of the two pipe organs is 122. This is the largest number of registers in Russia. The general installation of the stucco and woodwork of the large organ was recreated in the Baroque style from the surviving black-and-white photographs of the Königsberg organ of the 18th century. At the beginning of 2020, a unique acoustic system was installed in the concert hall, which has no analogues in Russia and Europe, allowing the sound of any instrument or voice to be directed directly to the listener and not to be lost anywhere in the cathedral's space.