Music steeped in spirituality
A German grand master of the baroque and a Flemish pioneer of new music – on paper the contrast seems huge. Despite a gap of over two centuries between them, as well as the obvious differences, it is nevertheless possible to detect a shared quality in the music of Bach and Karel Goeyvaerts. Both are fascinated by abstraction, and by the perfect architectural quality of a musical construction. More than anything, their music is steeped in spirituality. From the Lutheran devotion of Bach’s solo cantatas to the New Age ideas in Goeyvaerts’ opera Aquarius comes the conviction that music can transcend earthly reality.