1/5. Bach's first biographer, Johan Nikolaus
Forkel, said that the composer's music "is not merely agreeable, like other composers', but transports us to the regions of the ideal. It does not arrest our attention momentarily, but grips us the stronger the more often we listen to it, so that, after a thousand hearings, its treasures are still inexhaustible and yield fresh beauties to excite our wonder." Donald Macleod spends this week celebrating the splendour of Bach's genius. Bach Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen (Christmas Oratorio, BWV248, Part 6)
Ghent Collegium Vocale Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Philippe Herreweghe
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV582 Simon Preston (organ)
Cantata No 51: Jauchzet Gott in alien
Landen Christine Schafer (soprano),
Musica Antiqua , Koln, director Reinhard Goebel Trio Sonata in D minor, BWV527 Rare Fruits Council Knut Nystedt Immortal Bach Holst Singers, conductor Stephen Layton
Producer Lyndon Jones Repeated on Sunday at 12 midnight