Johann Sebastian Bach Photo: Elias Gottlob Haussmann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
We imagine now that Bach has always been incredibly famous, but it’s not so, as Peter Walls points out:
"The elevation of Bach to super-canonic status started in the 1820s with Felix Mendelssohn.
When he was fourteen, his grandmother gave him Bach’s autograph manuscript of the St Matthew Passion as a Christmas present. Imagine that! The young Mendelssohn, a prodigy if ever there was one, was fully capable of understanding what a masterpiece he had in front of him.
Six years later, he was to direct a performance of the work at the famous Berlin Singakademie."
Music Details:
BACH: Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder, from St Matthew Passion - Das Neue Orchester / Christoph Spering (Opus 111 – OPS 30-72)
BACH: Und siehe da, from St Matthew Passion - Das Neue Orchester / Christoph Spering (Opus 111 – OPS 30-72)
BACH: Prelude, from Prelude & Fugue No. 6 - Robert Levin (hpschd) (Hanssler 92.117)
BACH trans MOZART: Fugue on Bach's WTK - L133 - Rincontro (Alpha 089)
BACH: Toccata from Suite in E minor - H050 - Trevor Pinnock (hpschd) (Hänssler CD 92.115)
BACH: French Overture - Christophe Rousset (hpschd) (L’oiseau-lyre 433 054)
BACH: French Concerto, mvt 1 - LÓiseau-lyre 433 054 - Christophe Rousset (hpschd) (L’oiseau-lyre 433 054)
BACH: Trio Sonata from Musical offering - Ensemble Sonnerie (Virgin VC 5 45139)
BACH: Brandenburg Concerto No 4 - Freiburg Baroque Orch (Harmonia Mundi - HMC 90 2176)
BACH: Domine Deus duet, from Mass in B minor - Collegium Musicum/ Leonhardt (EMI 7 47595)
BACH: Contrapunctus XIV - Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik (Harmonia Mundi HMC 90 2064)
