Bach is very important, not just in germany, everywhere. What i find most extraordinary is that you have this construction o almost mathematics constructions and when you look through the gaps there's an ocean of emotions. We don't know enough about bach. In fact, he sounds quite bad tempered. One can really feel for the last few years that he is expecting death,. dreading it, and beethoven going deaf and everything. Bach had two happy marriages. Children did die more in those days. A lot of them lived. And and what? Four of them were very successful composers, great composers, one could even say, at least. It depends entirely
The internationally renowned cellist Steven Isserlis talks to Andrew Marr about his companion guide to The Bach Cello Suites. Isserlis explores why Bach’s Six Suites have become some of the most cherished music, and how Bach takes the audience on a spiritual journey, from joy, through tragedy, to jubilation.
Schubert’s heart-breaking song-cycle Winterreise tells of a young man’s desperate wanderings: the music and the poems creating images of fire and snow, of scalding and frozen tears. The baritone Benjamin Appl, accompanied by James Baillieu, stars in a new BBC film, Winter Journey, filmed in a tower on the snow-covered summit of the Julierpass in south-east Switzerland. An album of the music will be released in February.
The composer and pianist Kate Whitley is also interested in the importance of place in music. But she has taken a different tack, eschewing the often rarefied atmosphere of concert halls, for the concrete heart of city centres. She runs The Multi-Storey Orchestra which performs in car parks around the UK.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Photo copyright: Satoshi Aoyagi