If Bach had written an opera… Bach’s secular cantatas live and breathe due to the musical-dramatic talent of the baroque master’s polyphony. A talent that also distinguishes his oratorios and that confused not a few of his contemporaries, who did not expect such intense dramatic action in the context of sacred spaces. He often titled his secular cantatas – as in the case of BWV 201 – “Dramma per musica”. If Bach had written an opera… This thought inspired Hansjörg Albrecht to develop Cantata BWV 201, “Der Wettstreit zwischen Phoebus und Pan”, into a mini-opera. He added an overture as well as beginning and final choruses from other Bach works to create a musical-dramatic work that would have been appropriate for an evening’s entertainment at any baroque court.

Founded in 1954 by Karl Richter, the Münchener Bach-Chor has been directed since the 2005/2006 season by Hansjörg Albrecht, who has given the choir a new artistic profile within a very short time.