BBC Great Composers: Bach

1997 BBC documentary: Great Composers - Bach

[@J.B24]

39:22 Can you imagine going to church every week in Leipzig and getting an original Bach composition every week? Geez!

[@arnoldrivas4590]

With only one rehearsal on Saturday and perform on Sunday. Don't forget.

[@emilalbazi8691]

And FREEEEEEE, No online booking headache.

[@J.B24]

@@arnoldrivas4590 Yeah lol. I can't imagine what it would be like to have to perform a bach chorale after only one days rehearsal.

[@lindacowles756]

I'd be over the moon if that were the case today.

[@hisukserjeant5204]

Thats true blessing!!!! I envy U !!!!!!!!

[@renzo6490]

I was about 6 years old. Sitting beside my uncle Bill as he drove. My taste in music at that age was very basic: Christmas carols. The usual children’s songs…Home on the Range, Row Row Row your boat, etc, Uncle Bill turned the radio on to his classical music station. It was Bach, he told me. I listened for a few seconds. Then I was overcome with a feeling of nausea. I wasn’t ready for it. My ears couldn’t make sense of it. That was my introduction to Bach. Things have changed with time. That’s how it is with all kinds of tastes. Foods, colors. We grow into them as we pass through life’s stages.

[@RuoshiSun]

All music examples are listed below: 00:49 Aria from Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 03:14 "Jesu, meine Freude" from Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227 05:00 Siciliano from Harpsichord Concerto in E major, BWV 1053 06:16 Aria di Postiglione from Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother, BWV 992 07:49 "Credo in unum Deum" from Mass in B minor, BWV 232 11:30 Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich, BWV 719 15:22 Contrapunctus IX from Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 17:00 "Ach Herr, lehre uns bedenken" from Actus Tragicus, BWV 106 18:53 Fugue in A minor, BWV 889 from Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2 19:04 Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 21:16 "Zion hört" from Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 23:45 "Gloria in excelsis" from Mass in B minor, BWV 232 [Note: This movement is in D major, to illustrate Gardiner's earlier point.] 25:46 Prelude in C major, BWV 846 from Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 27:40 Preludes in C major - C minor - C-sharp major, BWV 846-848 from Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 29:06 Prelude in D major, BWV 850 from Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 29:44 Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 31:11 Fugue in D-sharp minor, BWV 853 from Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 33:30 "Laudamus te" from Mass in B minor, BWV 232 35:30 Variation 5 from Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 39:34 "Gute Nacht, o Wesen" from Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227 42:17 "Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder" from St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 43:20 "O love divine" from Theodora, HWV 68 46:04 "Erbarme dich" from St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 51:22 "Cum Sancto Spiritu" from Mass in B minor, BWV 232 52:59 Contrapunctus XIV from Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 55:56 "Dona nobis pacem" from Mass in B minor, BWV 232

[@MiaFeigelsonGallery]

@RuoshiSun, thanks a million !!!!

[@orlovae1]

Thanks. There was one moment in my life which I remember very well, when I realized that Bach is the greatest. I was at a musical school, waiting for my lesson and listening for an other student, playing Bach, looking through the window and thinking. I felt the calm, but striking beauty of the moment. I said to myself that the music of Bach is like contemplation. But I woud not be able to formulate, why is that, what is the difference to the other composers, why it feels so different. Here musicians make a good job to show the difference.

[@salvatoredistefano6256]

I knew it since I was 6 y.o. My teacher told me.

[@oludotunjohnshowemimo434]

Bach was indeed a very busy man, being the music director of Leipzig. Having to prepare cantatas every week for Sunday services, back in his office on Monday to compose the canatata for the upcoming Sunday.

[@martinmilner14]

The majority of this documentary is refreshingly delivered in down to earth, plain language.. Inevitably there is one person who has to disguise her ignorance in pompous verbosity, but thankfully ,just one. High quality documentary about even higher quality music.

[@Quim141]

43:00 the comparison between one of the great composers of all time and the greatest, undoubtely the best and most complex composer of all time.

[@Quim141]

43:45

[@ampzamp]

...Bach was the greatest Christian preacher, ever. And he did it all, without saying a word.

[@felixpizza]

Thanks for posting this, I enjoyed it a lot

[@MiaFeigelsonGallery]

@SW I can't find the words to thank you enough !!! Best wishes

[@quaver1239]

Many thanks, SW.

[@zyrtec3859]

Thank you for posting this BEST EVER documentary about JSBach. Have seen many of them, but THIS is really the BEST.

[@aksuli1]

Great documentary 👍.

[@janicemahan4772]

As Hawkeye on "Mash" would say..."Ah, Bach." Once you've said that, you've said everything.

[@infledermaus]

I think Bach would have lost his mind if he'd been sat down at a modern piano. I know he played a piano before his death, but they were nowhere near as smooth and beautiful as today's instruments. And can you imagine him sitting at a modern organ or a synthesizer? 😊

[@ecyranot]

Why hasn't there been a feature film about Bach? He sounds like a trip.

[@treakzy_9594]

watching this high is cray

[@EttorealbertoGelli-vr6sz]

K. vide un Angelo di straordinaria luce a guardia di yna altissima porta , la PORTA DELLA LEGGE. La Porta era aperta e K. riusci a vedere al suo interno una scala e una na luce ancora più forte di quella dell'Angelo Questo guardiano celeste aspettava che K. si muovesse verso la Porta ma vide che K. non era capace di CONOSCERE IL CONTENUTO DELLA PORTA DELLA LEGGE e cosi chiuse la Porta dicendogli : " questa Porta era stata aperta PER TE ". Nessun uomo, scrive FK, è capace di attraversare la PORTA DELLA LEGGE xchè è troppo imperfetto. Nessun uomo tranne yno a cui è stato dato il nome JOHANN SEBASTIAN... (variazioni sul cap. 11 detto ESEGESI DELLA LEGGENDA, " DER PROZESS" di FK)

[@stavrosk.2868]

Too bad the musical offering wasn´t touched upon in this documentary. Public recognition? Bach knéw that his music was immortal and for the ages.

[@northsta]

56:16 same wish for me, only I'd prefer harpsichord over organ😍

[@davidcox8945]

Bach in Arnstadt….’no shredding Joe!’

[@gauriblomeyer1835]

Wonderful, but not enough. I liked do hear more, something like the partita, chaconne, which as Mendelsson remarked is technical so difficult to play that only very few brilliant violin masters as Heifetz, Perlman, Milstein, Stern could perform it. Quite rare and full of jokes is the Quodlibet.

[@DuncanEduardo]

Chaconne 1004 is so much better on guitar imo. If only Bach could have witnessed it

[@EttorealbertoGelli-vr6sz]

JSB is the only real "SINGULARITY" in human history,the most preciaus human gift for the Universe

[@mrbrianjhewitt]

Any ideas on why Bach wrote a Mass in B minor instead of music in B minor for the Lutheran Divine Service? Thanks.

[@jimbo2629]

No. But I would like to know. Plenty of Latin and catholic service.

[@gcummings88]

The non-musician has one advantage over the musician. The non-musician can be totally right brain. The musician must add the left brain because of the need to physically play the music. We are in debt to the wonderul musicians, but they do not neccesarly get more out of the music than non-musicians get.

[@GourSmith]

There has literally never been-in the history of this existence-a person who was “totally right-brain” 🙄 You genuinely don’t even understand the words you’re using. An insufferable character for sure 😂👋

[@salvatoredistefano6256]

35:30 “OK, I approve it.”

[@pereboom23]

So we modern people allow the piano to play Bach

[@jhsu8903]

Does anyone know what piece Andras Schiff plays at 35:31?

[@martondr.karika8856]

The 5th variation of the Goldberg Variations.

[@jhsu8903]

Thank you

[@TheProsaicCult]

You hardly mentioned his vast collection of organ works. Unexplainable!

[@andrewknight8860]

Yes, you're right, and that is what I listen to most.

[@pereboom23]

Organ or harpsichord. Never seen a piano at the Matteüs or Johannes passion 😂😂😂😂

[@abcxyz8787]

In wikipedia it's written that Bach was born on 31/3 and here they say he was born on 23/3, which date is the correct one?

[@nicejob1589]

31/3 - Greetz from Germany

[@abcxyz8787]

@@nicejob1589Thanks :) The reason why I'm asking is that I recently came across the subject of life paths in numerology. It's when you add all the digits in your date of birth and reduce them to one digit. I calculated my life path to be 9 and started to read about it. It has a lot of characteristics which I will not mention but one that I thought might suit Bach is a special connection to the divine or to divine energy or higher spirituality and general view of things and special connection to music. I don't listen to a lot of classical music but I always loved Bach (well to the few pieces he composed that I listen to and like. I don't know or listen to most of his work). I felt something very deep in his music that touches me deeply and takes me to higher places emotionally and spiritually. I was interested to check out what his life path was and was pleased to find out that he is also a life path 9 (that is if you calculate his day of birth according to 31/3). That's why I was a bit worried when someone said in this program that he was born on 23/3 because that changes his life path number. I know this life path thing is not science and I don't know how much I believe in it myself, but it's an interesting thing to explore.

[@EttorealbertoGelli-vr6sz]

It depends: gregoriano calendar 21 / 3. Modern calendar 3 / 3. When JSB borned there was gregoriano calendar

[@EttorealbertoGelli-vr6sz]

Modern calendar 31 / 3

[@abcxyz8787]

Thanks for your replies

[@pereboom23]

Piano? It should played on harpsichord but talking about period music

[@pereboom23]

Metal no baroque bows 🙈 no 19th instruments please

[@stavrosk.2868]

So....if you love the period so much, you would prefer an 18th century eye cataract operation in stead of 21st century?

[@Robinwhiteart]

One of the few things humans have a right to boast about: Bach.

[@pereboom23]

Piano very legato not steggato😢

[@potsdam521]

Thats totally misleading Schiff telling Mozart knew the WTC and played it everyday, Mozart had exposure to Bach very late in life. Yes, he studied with JC Bach but surely it was not his fathers works. Why having to perpetuate that stereotype of a kind of dinasty in Music? On the other hand it was Beethoven who was deeply influenced by JS Bach and studied his works since his early years, and through Czerny and Liszt started the modern piano virtuoso school, with the solid base of the WTC and then his own sonatas. So its also curious Schiff mention Chopin and Schumann, but leaves Liszt out. When im fact Liszt did more to teach Bach through his multiple transcriptions.

[@soozb15]

Schiff has made no secret of his dislike for Liszt's music.

[@nightwish1000]

He mentioned Liszt right after Chopin and Schumann. You better listen again.

[@potsdam521]

@@nightwish1000 im referring to Schiff in minute 28 of the video, he never mentions Liszt but Mozart at the very first. Which is just his fantasy as he dislikes Liszt, but again, Mozart exposure to Bach is very late in life and not at all formational (the first great composer that was profoundly educated with Bachs music is Beethoven, and from there to Czerny and then Liszt will become the corner stone of classical musical education)

[@OUTBOUND184]

48:55 It's such a shame when atheist hearts know more than their heads but the materialistic veil is so heavy that, even though they themselves recognise the truth (from where?) they deny it in the same sentence

[@nikosvault]

Actually he denied YOU.

[@OUTBOUND184]

Incoherent. Go away.@@nikosvault

[@apes4days254]

​@@nikosvault he denied his own passion

[@potsdam521]

Yes Bach changed history of music. But he had almost no impact on Mozart and contemporary music, from Beethoven is really when Bach enhances all coming music and becomes the pilar of the classical tradition .

[@scottedmiston6566]

No impact on Mozart and contemporary music!? Huh? Mozart has been directly quoted admiring Bach and Bach indirectly influenced him-- he extensively learned from Bach's son J Christian Bach. The structures of contemporary music are based much on Bach's innovations. And as for contemporary, composers like philip glass, paul mccartney, brad meldhau, etc. openly reference Bach. Nadia Boulanger, the pre-eminent music teacher of the 20th century, instructed all of her future hall of fame composers by having them hand-trancribe Bach's Well Tempered Clavier. Yo, Bach didn't have an impact on music. He is music.

[@potsdam521]

@@scottedmiston6566 JC Christian Bach music has nothing to do with his fathers music, I think theres also a quote from him were he declares not truly understanding his father music. Thats why I say he has no impact on Mozart, and this totally opposite to Beethoven that learned the WTC since very young.

[@nicos4655]

@@potsdam521​​⁠​⁠ What is true, is that JS Bachs music did count as old fashioned in the classical era. On the other hand it is completely wrong that he would have had „almost no impact“ on Mozart. After JC Bach showed Mozart a few manuscripts of his father, he very intesively studied JS Bachs works and you can even hear that Mozarts style of composition changed a lot after that.

[@GourSmith]

@@potsdam521There would be no Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin etc without Bach. Bach isn’t even my favorite … That’s just reality. Mozart adored Bach. He grew up learning and studying Bach. Sit down with your ignorance and shut up 🙄

[@gopher7691]

Bach had a profound influence on Mozart later in his life. You only have to listen to the Jupiter symphony to realize it