Reinhard Geubel 2022

Conductor and violinist Reinhard Goebel has been at the forefront of the historical performance movement as the founder and director of the Musica Antiqua Köln. Goebel has an impressive, well-regarded recording catalog, and following Musica Antiqua's run and his retirement from playing the violin, he has continued to conduct and has established himself as an educator of note. Goebel was born on July 31, 1952, in Siegen, then West Germany. He began lessons on the violin at age 12 and attended the Cologne Conservatory, where he studied with Franzjosef Maier.

His colleague Georg Philipp Telemann, who was only a few years older, described him as “the greatest spirit of his time”. Reinhard Keiser is a striking example of a musician who was held in the highest esteem in his time, but is hardly present today. He wrote numerous stage works for the Hamburg Opera at the Gänsemarkt.

Conductor and violinist Reinhard Goebel has been at the forefront of the historical performance movement as the founder and director of the Musica Antiqua Köln. Goebel has an impressive, well-regarded recording catalog, and following Musica Antiqua's run and his retirement from playing the violin, he has continued to conduct and has established himself as an educator of note. Goebel was born on July 31, 1952, in Siegen, then West Germany.

This programme was conceived for Bachfest Leipzig 2016 and performed to great acclaim. We were invited as part of the concert series “Ausgezeichnet” (which translates as “excellent”), where young award recipients of international music competitions present themselves as part of the Bach Festival.

Mr. Lee? Wer ist dieser Mr. Lee? Der schweigsame Reisende, der sich vor den Seelen der Geschundenen im S21, dem Folterkerker, verneigt, den die barfüßigen Kinder in den Slums von Phnom Penh lieben, weil er ihnen ihre Postkarten oder Zigaretten abkauft, wer ist der stille Europäer, den sie „der weiße Elefant“ nennen? Reinhard Mey wahrt sein Geheimnis, aber er legt musikalische Kieselsteine für die Fährtenleser aus, sie werden Mr. Lee finden. Diese Spurensuche zieht sich wie ein Leitmotiv durch das neue Album. Es ist sein 27.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reveres him as an ‘icon of early music’, and the New York Times applauds him as a ‘light in a sea of mediocrity’. Reinhard Goebel specialises in the repertoire of the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries; As an expounder of period performance practice for both early music ensembles and modern orchestras, and as an endless fount of knowledge about gems of the repertoire, he is a world-renowned specialist.