Ottawa Symphony Orchestra

The Ottawa Symphony Orchestra performance of “Farewell to Bach”

Performed by musicians of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra on May 13th, 2023, at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre in Ottawa, Canada, Christos Hatzis’ “Farewell to Bach”'

The piece is a palimpsest (a work written on top of another existing work) of Contrapunctus XIX from J.S. Bach’s The Art of the Fugue. It is a beautiful mix of a classic masterwork - slowed down considerably and performed by string orchestra - layered over with six modern virtuosic solo lines by two violins, flute, oboe, English horn and bassoon.

This video was made possible by the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts.