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

The Bach Six Solo Cello Suites are considered a must for every cellist and when you look at lists of recordings of the Bach Suites they read like a who’s who of cellists. These pieces are an incredible inspiration and

When we hear the toccatas of Bach, we’re hearing the written representation of something at which he was a master – free improvisation at the keyboard. When we have a paired piece, such as a toccata and fugue, we have

Why is it that some pianists have become so closely associated with specific composers? Is it due to personal preference, that they feel a particular affinity with certain composers, or simply like their music? Or is the association one which

At the age of 57, Johann Sebastian Bach started to experience a number of health problems. Most serious was an affliction to his eyes, a condition that seemingly had plagued him from a young age. “His eyes had naturally bad

When I had sufficiently advanced in my piano studies, my teacher introduced me to the “French Suites” by Johann Sebastian Bach. I was told that “Suites” generally consisted of a series of stylized dance movements, with the name of the

Schoenberg, the master of the Second Viennese School, called him the first 12-tone composer. It was his treatment of chromatic themes that prompted that statement. It’s J.S. Bach, of course, and one of the works that prompted that label was