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Bach: A Passionate Life

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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Music: Classical: Early Music

30/03/2013

BBC Two - Bach: A Passionate Life

John Eliot Gardiner goes in search of Bach the man and the musician.

John Eliot Gardiner explores Johann Sebastian Bach's music and tours Germany as he goes in search of the real Bach - a warm family man, passionate artist and rebellious spirit.

John Eliot Gardiner goes in search of Bach the man and the musician. 

The famous portrait of Bach portrays a grumpy 62-year-old man in a wig and formal coat, yet his greatest works were composed 20 years earlier in an almost unrivalled blaze of creativity.  

We reveal a complex and passionate artist; a warm and convivial family man at the same time a rebellious spirit struggling with the hierarchies of state and church who wrote timeless music that is today known world-wide.  Gardiner undertakes a 'Bach Tour' of Germany, and sifts the relatively few clues we have - some newly-found. 

Most of all, he uses the music to reveal the real Bach.

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