The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Announces Surprise Addition to its Annual Baroque Festival: Two Newly Discovered Bach Works
December 1, 2025
First Major New York Concert Hall Performance on Alice Tully Hall’s Majestic Pipe Organ
Saturday and Sunday, December 6 and 7
CMS to Share Video of the Two Bach Works for Free on Tuesday, December 9 at Noon
New York, NY: December 1, 2025 -- Two newly discovered Bach pieces—not heard for 300 years until they were unveiled in Leipzig, Germany just 2 ½ weeks ago on November 17—have surfaced just in time for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s annual Baroque Festival. CMS has added both “new” organ works to their sold-out concerts on December 6 and 7, “Vivaldi’s Four Seasons,” which also features music by Telemann, Handel, Corelli and Bach. This is expected to be the first major concert hall performance of these works in New York. CMS plans to release a free video of the two Bach works on Tuesday, December 9 on the CMS YouTube page, and the entire concert performance the following week as part of its Digital Encores series, available for purchase ($10).
With the renowned organist Paolo Bordignon already performing on harpsichord as part of the ensemble for CMS’s December 6 and 7 concerts, CMS added the two Bach works to the program, taking advantage of Alice Tully Hall’s powerful 4,200-pipe organ, which was made in 1974 near Zurich by Orgelbau Kuhn and installed in 1975 as a gift from Miss Alice Tully. Bordignon, who presented an intriguing program of organ music during last season’s Baroque Festival at CMS, is harpsichordist of the New York Philharmonic and organist and choirmaster of St. Bartholomew’s Church, Park Avenue.
David Finckel and Wu Han, co-artistic directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, said, “We are very pleased that we were able to add to the original program two short organ works which, just last month, were confirmed to have been written by none other than Johann Sebastian Bach. Throughout history, many have asserted that Bach was the greatest composer who ever lived. To be afforded the no. 1 spot among the handful of immortal classical composers comes with a great deal of attention, so the appearance of undiscovered works by Bach is akin to finding new stars in the sky. Who knows when (or if) the next work of his will turn up? Perhaps not in our lifetimes, making this a moment we are indeed fortunate to experience.”
The discovery of these two Bach works was 30 years in the making, beginning in 1992 when Peter Wollny, then a Harvard graduate student in musicology and now the executive director of the Bach Archive Leipzig in Germany, was working on his dissertation at the Royal Library of Belgium. He made copies of two unusual manuscripts that intrigued him and tucked them away. It took years of research, investigation and following hunches to attribute them definitively to J.S. Bach, who probably composed them as a teenager or a young 20-something. They have now been officially added to Bach’s oeuvre as the Ciacona and Fuga in D minor, BWV 1178, and the Ciacona in G minor, BWV 1179.
Saturday, Dec 6, 2025 at 7:30 PM – SOLD OUT
Sunday, Dec 7, 2025 at 5:00 pm – SOLD OUT
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center • Alice Tully Hall
TWO LOST WORKS BY BACH
VIOLIN SPOTLIGHT / VIVALDI’S FOUR SEASONS
Event page
Bach Ciacona and Fuga in D minor for Organ, BWV 1178*
Bach Ciacona in G minor for Organ, BWV 1179*
Telemann Fantasia No. 10 in D major for Violin, TWV 40:23* (1735)
Handel Sonata in A major for Violin and Continuo, Op. 1, No. 3* (C. 1725-26)
Corelli Concerto Grosso in D major for Strings and Continuo, Op. 6, No. 4 (Pub 1714)
Bach Concerto in E major for Violin, String (Before 1730)
Vivaldi The Four Seasons, Op. 8, Nos. 1–4 (1725)
Paolo Bordignon, HARPSICHORD and ORGAN • Chad Hoopes, Kristin Lee, Richard Lin, Julian Rhee†, Arnaud Sussmann, VIOLIN • Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt, James Thompson, VIOLA • Edward Arron, CELLO • Anthony Manzo, DOUBLE BASS
*Indicates a work that is new to CMS.
† Indicates that this artist is a current Bowers Program member.
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About the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is one of eleven constituents of the largest performing arts complex in the world, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Through its many performance, education, recording, digital, and broadcast activities, CMS brings the experience of great chamber music to more people than any other organization of its kind with a full season in New York, as well as national and international tours. Under the artistic leadership of David Finckel and Wu Han, CMS presents a wide variety of concert series and educational events for listeners of all ages, appealing to both connoisseurs and newcomers. The performing artists constitute a revolving multi-generational and international roster of the world’s best chamber musicians, enabling CMS to present chamber music of every instrumentation, style, and historical period. The CMS Bowers Program, its competitive three-season residency, is dedicated to developing the chamber music leaders of the future and integrates this selection of extraordinary early-career musicians into every facet of CMS activities. Its incomparable digital presence, which regularly enables CMS to reach hundreds of thousands of viewers and listeners around the globe annually, includes: a growing number of live-streamed programs; more than 1,600 hours of performance and education videos free to the public on its website; a 52-week public radio series across the US; radio programming in Taiwan and mainland China; appearances on American Public Media; a new relationship with Apple Music Classical; the monthly program “In Concert with CMS” on the ALL ARTS broadcast channel; the NY-Emmy-nominated documentary “Transcending: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Celebrates 50 Years;” the PBS documentary film, "Chamber Music Society Returns;" and performances featured on Medici.tv, Tencent, and SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall channel.
Thousands of children, teens, and adults discover the joys of chamber music and deepen their knowledge and appreciation of this beautiful art form through CMS education and community engagement programs. CMS offers an extraordinary number of learning formats and experiences to engage and inform listeners of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of musical knowledge, and to provide unique educational opportunities for the most talented early career chamber musicians. This includes school-based programs for elementary school students; family concerts in both traditional and casual and accessible formats; teen-centered programs; free concerts in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn through the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Initiative for Music and Community Engagement; master classes throughout the United States and internationally; pre-concert composer chats; and insightful lectures for adults on the season’s repertoire.
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