One of the greatest champions of Johann Sebastian Bach in the 20th century
was Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist
and harpsichordist, Richter became synonymous with Bach. He founded the
Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach
revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival.
He turned his adopted city of Munich in a Bach center. And he recorded all
the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100
cantatas. Richter - he was born in Thuringia and studied in Dresden and
Leipzig - absorbed the Bach tradition at its source, in the cities where
the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts
in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to s
his own style, which was considered revolutionary in the 1950s and 60s.
Richter's own style of keyboard playing also accented a cool, brisk, almost
abstract attitude toward the music.
