BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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The Alternative Bach, with Mahan Esfahani

The Alternative Bach, with Mahan Esfahani: Outsiders

Outsiders

BBC Radio 3 - The Alternative Bach, with Mahan Esfahani, Outsiders

Mahan Esfahani pays tribute to the iconoclasts that challenged 'polite' Bach performance.

Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani pays tribute to the iconoclasts that challenged 'polite' Bach performance, selecting some of his favourite recordings.

Across the series, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani is challenging mainstream ideas of what's 'right' or 'wrong' in how Bach's music is performed. In this episode he pays tribute to the eternal outsiders of ‘polite’ Bach performance — those either ahead of their time in terms of unearthing historically informed methods, or who were not accepted after changing trends left them behind.

Mahan asks why Bach’s music is subjected to such rigid codification, and makes the case for an early Otto Klemperer recording of Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 that features a soprano saxophone playing the solo trumpet part. He digs out a rare Nadia Boulanger record from the 1930s with a Romanticised orchestral style that doesn’t pass much muster these days, and shares a brilliant modern-day live recording by a pianist going against the grain, Grigory Sokolov. 

Produced by Chris Elcombe.
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Music: Classical

Mahan Esfahani challenges what's 'right' or 'wrong' in how JS Bach's music is performed.

In this three-part series, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani challenges mainstream ideas of what's 'right' or 'wrong' in how JS Bach's music is performed.

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