Meeting John Eliot Gardiner in Johann Sebastian Bach's hometown Leipzig | with Sarah Willis

The famous portrait of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach comes home to Leipzig after traveling around the world for 265 years. The world´s leading Bach specialist, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, tells Sarah Willis about his special relationship to the portrait.
Sarah Willis is a British-American French horn player. In 2001, she joined the Berlin Philharmonic, becoming the first female member of its brass section.
She was born in Maryland, USA and grew up in Tokyo, Boston, Moscow and London. At age 14 she started playing French horn and then attended the Royal College of Music Junior Department in London, UK. She studied full-time at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, UK.
In 1991, she moved to Berlin, where she became Second Horn in the Berlin State Opera under Daniel Barenboim.
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#SarahWillis #JohnEliotGardiner #Bach #Leipzig

[@simonkawasaki4229]

Gardiner must feel so proud for having Bach so close to his life. He is truly one of the best interpreters of Him.

[@drisszyani3497]

Tony koopman and Karajan the best

[@WinrichNaujoks]

@@drisszyani3497 You're both off your minds.

[@MrUseur]

A day without listening to Bach's music is a day on which something is missing. But, starting the day with Bach's music always means joy.

[@willbigelow472]

I love the Violin Concertos and listen to them most mornings!

[@eddiematthias6049]

I guess im asking the wrong place but does anyone know a tool to get back into an instagram account?? I somehow forgot my login password. I appreciate any assistance you can give me!

[@brodiegus2473]

@Eddie Matthias Instablaster ;)

[@b8hovenusa]

From Germany living in the US near Washington D.C. Took the bus to work this morning listening to Bach on my iphone. The Bus driver asked me what I was listening too. I said Bach. He said: "who is that". I almost fell on the floor.

[@jgunther3398]

Bus drivers mostly listen to Bruckner in DC

[@douglasdickerson5184]

@@jgunther3398 😂

[@stargirl6659]

“And I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like his music” Where does she live? What kind of wonderful life must that be.

[@samsylvester2140]

Sarah Willis is hornist at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra...

[@zimnaya]

There are two things that take my day out of the ordinary...a Shakespeare sonnet...and...listening to Bach

[@jasonemery3618]

I agree that bach is the only composer that you can listen to for comfort. Whenever i have a shitty day where i become numb to feeling, i listen to ruht wohl from st John passion and it makes me feel worm and comforted. I think its the strong base that he likes ( which may be why the organ is his favorite istrument). If music was was like food than, Mozart would be like a sweet tart, as bach would be like a thick cheese pizza.

[@joyousmonkey6085]

Bach's music makes me feel how vast, unknown yet beautifully mysterious the universe is.

[@Dhruvnater456]

His music shall reach the other side of our galaxy someday, maybe even beyond

[@petermorgan768]

I really enjoyed this video. We can thank Felix Mendelssohn for keeping Bach's music and legacy alive. Mendelssohn is my favorite composer and is the other Leipzig celebrity. Would love to see a video dedicated to his memory as well.

[@rr7firefly]

I absolutely love anything by or about Bach. I must also comment on Sarah Willis' presentation. A very smart and attractive woman who also speaks fluent German. Brava signorina!

[@countluke2334]

Not only fluent but nearly without accent. Her German is certainly better than that of Leipzig's locals who speak in a terrible, very nasal saxon accent.

[@rr7firefly]

@@countluke2334 Thank you for weighing in on that. I sometimes forget that each country has regions where the language is spoken differently. When I lived in Texas I often wondered why those "folks" spoke with such a heavy twang. They can sound like real yahoos.

[@user-fk4fn3vn3f]

I can't imagine a world without Bach Bach is on top of the music.

[@hernanmatue9596]

Hi Sarah, I am showing your videos to my students in an Elementary and Middle School in Miami. Excellent work and mission your are doing. Congrats. Hernan Matute.

[@gothiccsatlos]

J.S Bach❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@dibaldgyfm9933]

Wow 80000 visitors! Yesss! I would like to go there, too.

[@flexusmaximus4701]

The host is very pretty.

[@soundknight]

Wish they used a smaller camera aperture so we could see the picture in focus too.

[@soundknight]

Heaven!

[@user_user1337]

"Bach kann nie langweilig sein." Amen to that!

[@johnrandolph6121]

Hopefully Sarah bought that poor boy a decent shirt.

[@metteholm4833]

That portrait is remarkably good! He is ALIVE.. because the artist knew how to focus the eyes. Btw.... what should be wrong with Bachs eyebrows? They look perfectly natural to his type of features. The video-hosts might misinterpret the painters strokes. He has painstakingly painted every hair from the root and followed it downwards/sideways, as eyebrow-hairs naturally grow. Our hosts seem to think, that the hair-roots are the supposed to be the tip of the hairs.

[@mrdjangofreeman5560]

Many thx from a true music beginner for highlighting the boss genius so smartly. Thx as well to Sir John Eliot Gardiner for sharing his passion so enthousiastically with everyone, me included. Warm regards.

[@lindacowles756]

G'day, DW Classical Music! I really enjoy watching videos like this one. I learn so much about my favourite composer. One question I have is re: the myopic-appearing eyes in the Haussmann portrait. Is there a certain way to tell if he was myopic from looking at the eyes in the painting?

[@DWClassicalMusic]

Dear Linda! We're glad you enjoyed it! 😊 Unfortunately, we cannot answer your question exactly. However, it is assumed that Bach suffered from a low degree of myopia.

[@capezyo]

Intersiting to know Haussman portrait das with him....

[@tonysouter8095]

Lovely video, Sarah!

[@maestrovoci7214]

Having heard a JEG-conducted Bach cantata concert in St. Thomas, I would heartily dispute his being "the world's leading Bach specialist." He is speed demon and ruined the "Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis" cantata for me and for others, namely, native Leipzigers who just sat and shook their heads in disagreement with JEG's tempi. Nice that he returned the painting to its natural home, but why did it take him so many years to do it?

[@777rogerf]

If the English wish to proclaim someone "the leading ENGLISH Bach specialist, let them work it out among themselves. The rest of may ignore the English style of performing Bach while, in my case, highly appreciating their performance of many wonderful works by English composers, and I will give them Handel as well.

[@777rogerf]

I do greatly appreciate English conductors and performers of English music. But almost all big name conductors, German as well, share the general trend toward the elevation of virtuosity for its own sake regardless of the composer. Very often, this means "full speed ahead and may the Devil take the hindmost!"

[@starfox1]

7:11 "beethoven certainly doesnt do it (provide comfort)" lol so much beethoven disdain

[@thomasjohn5037]

Maybe he meant Beethoven's music is so violent and powerful that it strikes fire in the hearts of men, not providing comfort to be precise.

[@bikemoto2113]

Ill be Bach!

[@johnbarry5036]

6:37 Music is a subjective thing, he shouldn't mock with his scoffing and eyes up gesture. Mahler in the Adagietto or the Andante Moderato (6th symp) has always provided me more "trost" than any Bach piece. The peace and sense of love I get from these works will never end and have a universal timelessness to them, for me. To each their own.

[@---hv2le]

Bach and back sound similar... WE GET IT

[@twobytwo9045]

Had anyone noticed the resemblance ?? He looks exactly like Bach

[@rationalactor]

At last! I thought I was the only one to see the resemblance

[@DWClassicalMusic]

😅

[@Mau365PP]

10:29 name of the piece?

[@dwnews]

Hi Mau365PP, it's "Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn" (Praise the Lord, Jerusalem) - BWV 119 /gu

[@WinrichNaujoks]

02:21 Joahnnes Seabstian Bach?

[@MrZORROish]

Is it just me or does Sir John's face bear a more than passing resemblance to Johann Sebastian??

[@martinvanheusden9832]

Dear Sarah, everybody loves/loves Bach? Well, NOT with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky who especially admired Mozart and regarded Bach primarily as a strict, rigid German schoolmaster.

[@DWClassicalMusic]

Yes, that’s right - Tchaikovsky wasn’t a big fan of Bach’s music. But nevertheless most people are touched by Bach’s music, especially his church music, aren’t they?

[@voxveritatis3815]

Bach is definitely a member of the Holy Trinity of music. Calling him the 'absolute boss' beyond the other two is sound and accurate, but not within. Of course, regarding fugues and the mathematical approach of music, Bach has no match. However, there's Haendel, whose music was not influenced at all by Bach, and in any case the influence could have been from Haendel to Bach as we can hear the sudden haendelian fanfare-like palace influence in the Jauzet frohlocket BWV 248 introduction. Haendel's music had the power of dissemination inherent to the British Empire unlike Bach's. Last but not least, there's Mozart. While it's true that he was exposed to both Bach's and Haendel's music by baron Van Swieten, it's also true that Mozart had an impressive background of his own, being the pupil of the best counterpoint master of Europe, father Martini, and friend of many notorious musicians. Having said that, the metaphor of the Holy Trinity is useful to illustrate my point: Bach is God the Father Haendel is God the Son Mozart is God the Holy Spirit. The rest can be the Virgin, archangels, angels, cherubs or seraphs if you wish, but never God.

[@googleuser8036]

Just watched Gardiner’s documentary (Bach: A Passion for life, 2014), which was, in my opinion, nearly ruined by absurd psychoanalysis of Bach’s character by some juvenile-thinking female psychologist, who “diagnosed” Bach with all sorts of disorders. I simply couldn't believed the nonsense that was coming out of her mouth, nor could I understand WHY that kind of garbage was allowed into the film, which otherwise would have been very compelling. The good news is that J.S Bach and his reputation doesn’t give one squad about some shrink’s diagnoses of him 300+ years after his repose. But the film suffered greatly because of It.

[@777rogerf]

The English have concluded after rigorous evaluation that they have the world's leading expert on Bach. There's no arguing with that, is there?

[@Johnwilkinsonofficial]

bruckner wants all the shade.

[@peterjongsma2754]

This interview is trite.

[@tenoreDB]

You don't know anyone who doesn't loves his music ? : think again. I personally don't and a lot of other musicians to. I love Mozart and beethoven and am totally a fan of Verdi and Puccini, and Mahler, Bruckner and all the great orchestral composers excite me a lot. Never say that in the Netherlands because they kill you and say its blasphemy but for me Bach.... eeeh kinda ..well yes boring .

[@drisszyani3497]

3 genius in the history : Bach Mozart Beethoven. But Bach the greatest.

[@Dhruvnater456]

For me its the opposite, Mozart, Beethoven I find boring. J.S Bach unimaginably good

[@sunny-sq6ci]

bach looks like he's either eternally midly annoyed at the painter, or he was like that always.

[@Sshooter444]

Keep your hands off Bach's organ!

[@tenoreDB]

His wives didn't think so ;)

[@curaticac5391]

Gearman man/sixty one years old/ cannot stand Bach's music 😫😕. He loves "metal" instead. He must be looney 🙃.

[@shengting]

This woman loved to gloat

[@oscargrillo9508]

Unbearable and disrespectful....Annoying!

[@moesypittounikos]

just pronounce it 'bak' in English! It's too forced using the harsh Germanic ending to the name

[@tomlabooks3263]

Right!! Everything should be pronounced with English phonemes!! Including African tribal languages, Eskimo and Japanese!