EC on Bach

[sweetest punch]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... xhome.html



Bach to Bach music for 10 days on Radio 3
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
(Filed: 15/10/2005)

After six days of continuous Beethoven, Radio 3 has decided to give listeners 10 uninterrupted days of J S Bach.

Buoyed by the success of its Beethoven marathon in the summer, the station unveiled plans yesterday to clear its schedules in the run-up to Christmas to play every known work by the unhappy cantor of Leipzig.


Switched on: The 'Bach-athon' will last 214 hours
As a hired hand (in ducal courts and in churches) all his life, Bach was far more prolific than Beethoven.

Radio 3 will devote 214 hours to the "Bach-athon", enough time to play his 500 organ works, 371 chorales, 215 cantatas, 200 keyboard works, 40 chamber pieces, 28 orchestral works, 14 passions, masses and oratorios (plus the Magnificat) and six motets.

The broadcasts will include some of the oldest surviving Bach recordings - dating from 1931 - and live performances.

The project will run from Dec 16 to Christmas Day. The only breaks will be for news bulletins, though there will be many short talks on Bach.

The likes of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Andrew Motion and Elvis Costello will share their thoughts on the composer.
The six-day Beethoven feast in June was one of Radio 3's biggest successes. When the BBC offered Beethoven's nine symphonies free on its website in the following fortnight, there were 1.4 million downloads.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Nice one. Bach rocks.

[legman open to offers]

Deserves a bump!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Bach is to music what Vermeer is to light.

[laughingcrow]

Good stuff...it's great to see the good reception the BBC got for the Beethoven project. These pieces should be free to download forever more - they should belong to everyone.

I really like Bach's Mein Herze Schwimmt In Blut recitative opening Cantata no.199...if they played cantatas or passions like Bach's more at church - I'd go!

[Otis Westinghouse]

My heart swims in blood? Far out! Don't know this - am largely ignorant of his cantatas. Me too with church. The Church of Bach, that would get me going. I can play the opening Prelude of The Well-Tempered CLavier well enough, but am struggling to do the same with the opening aria of the Goldberg Variations.

[Who Shot Sam?]

My heart swims in blood? Far out! Don't know this - am largely ignorant of his cantatas. Me too with church. The Church of Bach, that would get me going. I can play the opening Prelude of The Well-Tempered CLavier well enough, but am struggling to do the same with the opening aria of the Goldberg Variations.

Otis. do you have any of Glenn Gould's Bach recordings? I know they're not the most hisstorically correct performances, but there's something very special about them.

There's also a great little Glenn Gould sampler in that "Great Pianists of the 20th Century" series that Polygram issued a few years ago. That film they made about Gould a few years back - "32 Short Films Aboout Glenn Gould" - is very interesting too.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Yeah, wanted to see that film and, like so often, missed it.

I can't get past his godawful vocal accompaniment. He may as well be farting for all it enhances the piano, to my ears. I should revisit though, as he's such a celebrated interpreter. Many uphold his Bachs to be the best ever. It's such pure music, to sully it with ugly groaning strikes me as perverse. Would you defend it?

[martinfoyle]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/abachchristmas/pip/bcjve/

A Bach Christmas
Friday 16 Dec
Petroc Trelawny
Friday 16 December 2005 19:00-22:00 (Radio 3)

The start of a 214-hour marathon featuring all of Johann Sebastian Bach's surviving works. Throughout the celebrations, speakers from the world of music and beyond will be introducing the pieces and what they mean to them.

Contributors include Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emma Kirkby, Davitt Moroney, Ton Koopman, Christopher Hogwood, Dame Gillian Weir, Joanna MacGregor, Sir Roger Norrington, Dame Janet Baker and Andrew Parrott.

Plus The Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, The Archbishop of Canterbury the Right Reverend Rowan Williams, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Armando Ianucci, Siobhan Davies, Sir Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Simon Russell Beale, Fiona Shaw, Ian McEwan, Wynton Marsalis, Nitin Sawhney, Andrew Marr and Alain de Botton.

Simon Heighes contributes Bach Bites - short introductions to various aspects of Bach's life and works; and Peter Dyke follows Bach's footsteps from Arnstadt to Lubeck.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/schedule/2005/12/24/day/

07:00
A Bach Christmas
Martin Handley
Radio 3's celebration of Bach nears its conclusion with contributions from Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emma Kirkby, Davitt Moroney, Ton Koopman, Christopher Hogwood, Dame Gillian Weir, Joanna MacGregor, Sir Roger Norrington, Dame Janet Baker and Andrew Parrott.

Also featured are the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Armando Iannucci, Siobhan Davies, Sir Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Simon Russell Beale, Fiona Shaw, Ian McEwan, Wynton Marsalis, Nitin Sawhney, Andrew Marr and Alain de Botton.

Simon Heighes contributes Bach Bites; short introductions to various aspects of Bach's life and works and Peter Dyke follows Bach's footsteps from Arnstadt to Lubeck

[Otis Westinghouse]

Tower of Bach:

1. Cello suites
2. Goldberg Variations
3. Well-Tempered Clavier
4. Brandenburg Concertos
5. Toccata and Fugues for organ

Obviously there are personal favourites within 1, 4 and 5, but I think it's right to view them as one whole. I don't really know St Matthew's Passion, but tend towards non-sung music, unless it's polyphonic choral stuff. Would love any other strong recommendations, there's an ocean of it.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Yeah, wanted to see that film and, like so often, missed it.

I can't get past his godawful vocal accompaniment. He may as well be farting for all it enhances the piano, to my ears. I should revisit though, as he's such a celebrated interpreter. Many uphold his Bachs to be the best ever. It's such pure music, to sully it with ugly groaning strikes me as perverse. Would you defend it?

I don't know that I would defend it. It is what it is. I wouldn't rely on it as a definitive interpretation, but it's very compelling in its own way.

Keith Jarrett, the great jazz pianist, is even worse in this respect (though, strangely, the vocalizing does not happen when he's recording classical pieces, such as his excellent set of Shostakovich's Preludes & Fugues).

The film's definitely worth your time.

[johnfoyle]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 28,00.html
( extract)
Why we love his music

Elvis Costello

I know people who think Bach is all mathematical, but I don’t know how you could arrive at that idea. There are such beautiful airs in these pieces.


...........also, this helpful listing -



A Bach for every occasion

Bach for...romance
The heavenly slow movement of the Double Violin Concerto

Bach for...Starbucks
The Coffee Cantata, naturally

Bach for...consolation
Es ist vollbracht, St John Passion

Bach for...jogging
Brandenburg Concerto No 3

Bach for...bedtime
The Goldberg Variations, composed to help a Russian Count get some kip

[verena]

For Christmas : The Christmas oratorio


NB : for bedtime, Chopin "Nocturnes" are most efficient, because very little emotion provoking (unless they remind you of something specific that work you up).

[Otis Westinghouse]

Keith Jarrett, the great jazz pianist, is even worse in this respect (though, strangely, the vocalizing does not happen when he's recording classical pieces, such as his excellent set of Shostakovich's Preludes & Fugues).

And such as his lovely recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the recording I know best of it. Very pure and clean. Certainly no humming.