Johann Sebastian Bach was born in present-day Germany in 1685. Before we dive into his music, here are a few things you should know about him first: Music was Bach’s family business. Almost every man in his family was a

Countless scholars, performers, and conductors have asked the almost impossible question of how Bach’s music sounded when it was performed for the first time. This question really caused a great stir some decades ago with Joshua Rifkin suggesting that what

Truth be told, I am almost apprehensive when watching or reading the morning news these days. Front pages and screens are full of yet more atrocities against humanity, and the death of innocent people from around the world is treated

In 1734, Johann Sebastian Bach was at the top of his game. His compositional powers were simply out of this world, and he composed six musically and textually interrelated cantatas for the twelve days of Christmas. He called the collection

I have written before about how some repertoire is considered “off limits” to amateur pianists, and should remain the preserve of the professional. I think what such an attitude demonstrates is how the “core canon” of piano repertoire is held

We’ve checked in with cellist Valérie Aimard a few times over the past few years and have noted with interest how much she has done for the world of cello. Her YouTube Channel, Only Cello, a recorded anthology of cello

Widely acclaimed for his creative genius, Víkingur Ólafsson embarked on a venture of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, a work that has witnessed countless interpretations. The challenge of approaching such a frequently recorded work lies in avoiding redundancy or novelty for its

Johann Sebastian Bach was known as a strict disciplinarian, and apparently he never really got on well with his students. During his early professional days in Arnstadt, Bach got into a fight with a student after he called him a