Theme of 2009

The theme of La Folle Journée au Japon “Days of Enthusiasm” Music Festival 2009 will be “Bach et L’Europe” (Bach and Europe). Johann Sebastian Bach, “the father of modern music,” is the composer most requested in questionnaire surveys of past visitors to the festival. Noted for his extraordinary curiosity, Bach was interested not only in German music but also in the music of France, Italy, England and other European countries. He copied and kept in his bookshelves a vast number of musical scores. Based on this huge collection of scores, the 2009 festival aims to bring Bach and his era back to life, focusing on the following perspectives:

• ●A comprehensive overview of Bach's masterworks
• ●Works by baroque composers who influenced Bach
  Couperin, Vivaldi, Händel, Buxtehude and others
• ●Works by Bach’s sons
• ●Arrangements by composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
  Schumann, Liszt, Saint-Saës, Busoni, Reger, Shoenberg, Webern, Stokowski, Willa-Lobos and others
• ●Performances by world music artists and jazz musicians—one of the most popular features every year
• ●Japanese premieres of works dedicated to Bach by contemporary composers

We hope you will enjoy this journey of adventure and discovery through the music of Bach.