Lost pieces performed for first time in 320 years

Previously unknown organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach have been presented and performed in Germany for the first time in 320 years.

Germany’s Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer called the discovery of the two pieces a “great moment for the world of music”.

They first caught the attention of the Peter Wollny, a researcher of the German composer and musician, in 1992 when he was cataloguing Bach manuscripts at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels.

The organ works – the Chaconne in D minor BWV 1178 and Chaconne in G minor BWV 1179 – were undated and unsigned. Mr Wollny spent the next 30 years working to confirm the identity of the pieces.

They were performed at the St Thomas Church in Leipzig, where Bach is buried and where he worked as a cantor for 27 years.

The two pieces were played by Dutch organist Ton Koopman, who said he was proud to be able to perform them for the first time in 320 years.

He said the pieces were “of a very high quality” and would be “a great asset for organists today, as they are also suitable for smaller organs”.

They are believed to have been composed early in Bach’s career, when he was working as an organ teacher in the town of Arnstadt in Thuringia.

Mr Wollny, who is now the director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, said they displayed several characteristics unique to the composer.

“Stylistically, the works also contain features that can be found in Bach’s works from this period, but not in those of any other composer,” he said.

They are believed to have been written down in 1705 by one of Bach’s pupils, Salomon Günther John.

At a presentation of the works, Mr Wollny said he was “99.99% sure that Bach had written the two pieces” and they have now been added to the official catalogue of his works.