Boston’s annual celebration of all things Bach returns to First Lutheran Church of Boston on Saturday, March 22, 2025. For the seventeenth year, the annual Boston Bach Birthday will draw hundreds in celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contributions to music. Held on the Saturday nearest Bach’s March 21st birthday, it is an all-day festival of concerts featuring the music of Bach, those who influenced him, and those who were influenced by him. All musical events are free and open to the public.
Begun in 2008 as a celebration of “Boston’s Bach Organ,” the Richards, Fowkes & Co. opus 10 pipe organ traditionally features prominently at the Bach Birthday, and 2025 is no exception. Three organists will play recitals, beginning with FLC Kantor Jonathan Wessler at 9:00am. Continuing his series of “sets” of organ works by Bach (the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes in 2021, the Orgel-Büchlein in 2022, the Six Trio Sonatas in 2023, and the complete chorale partitas in 2024), this year FLC Kantor Jonathan Wessler starts off the day with Bach’s complete Neumeister Chorales and Eight Christmas Fughettas. At 1:10 Grant Smith will play Bach’s Canonic Variations and Concerto in D Minor after Vivaldi, as well as works by Grigny and Buxtehude. Smith is fresh off his third-place win of the International Bach Competition in Leipzig, the European sibling to Boston’s own Boston Bach International Organ Competition. And finally, at 2:55 organist Brandon Santini takes the bench. A familiar face in the Boston organ scene, Santini’s all-Bach program features a prelude and fugue, a trio sonata, and a chorale partita.
Chamber music is a regular feature at the Boston Bach Birthday, and this year the event features three performances from two groups. The duo of violinist Cynthia Freivogel and harpsichordist Artem Belogurov will play a two-part program titled “Bach and His Circle,” with a lovely German-style harpsichord built by Allan Winkler as the visual and aural centerpiece. These programs, at 11:05 and 2:00, showcase the chamber music of Bach as well as his contemporaries Buxtehude, Telemann, Johann Georg Pisendel, and Georg Muffat. And at 4:05 the new ensemble Beantown Baroque will perform music of Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, Corelli, and Johann Goldberg (the very same Goldberg after whom the Goldberg Variations are named) on strings, theorbo, and harpsichord.
Though Boston audiences typically prefer historically-informed performances on harpsichord or clavichord, the Bach Birthday has successfully featured piano performances in the last four years: in 2021 professor Noam Elkies played a transcription of the first Brandenburg concerto; in 2022 April Sun and Andrus Madsen performed Rheinberger’s transcription of the Goldberg Variations on two authentic 19th-century grand pianos; in 2023 Artem Belogurov performed Bach on a reconstruction of a Baroque piano; and last year Calvin Kotrba played a French suite on piano. Such historically-informed performance of Bach on piano is becoming more in vogue, and the Bach Birthday is pleased to be a part of the movement towards a broader understanding of historical performance. This year, pianist Calvin Kotrba returns to First Lutheran’s Steinway model M at 3:45pm, offering the Fantasy and Fugue in A Min or, BWV 904 pairing it with the stylistically similar third and fourth movements of Beethoven’s Sonata no. 28 in A Major.
No celebration of Bach’s music would be complete without a cantata, and this year’s will be heard at the 5:00 Vespers service. Bach’s outstanding wedding cantata In allen meinen Taten, BWV 94, will serve as the musical focal point of Vespers, alongside a sermon on the Prodigal Son in relation to the cantata. Vespers will be rounded out with motets by Michael Praetorius, Johannes Heugel, and hymns by Martin Luther and Heinrich Schütz.
The Young People’s Concert is a recent addition to the day’s program, and a well-received one. This year’s 10:35am concert features youth from First Lutheran Church as well as several musicians from the Powers Music School. The repertoire includes the Bach Double Concerto, various solo and accompanied violin works, the Musette for harpsichord, and the famous Minuet in G, arranged for string ensemble. The fact that this concert is so well-received each year is a testament to the enduring nature of Bach’s music, and it is always encouraging to see young people engaging with such brilliant music.
Any overview of the Bach Birthday would be remiss to omit the famous German Lunch, served at noon (tickets $20/$10 at the door). The menu shifts yearly, but frequently includes pretzels, sausage, sauerkraut, sauerbraten, potato salad, spätzel, and other delicious German fare. It is not to be missed!
As always, concertgoers are free to come and go throughout the day as they are able. While some attend but one or two events, and others stay for the whole day, all leave the Boston Bach Birthday having been musically and spiritually edified. More information, including the complete list of repertoire for the day, is available HERE.