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Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesJohann Sebastian Bach artist page: listen to interviews, features and music archived at NPR Music.
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The adventuresome Orpheus Chamber Orchestra introduces its newest commission, a companion piece to J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, the second installment in the series called "The New Brandenburgs."
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NPR and WNYC offer an encore presentation of the acclaimed Collegiate Chorale and soloists, recorded live in concert, performing one of the most beloved works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
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With votes from Gramophone magazine critics and listeners of 15 classical radio networks, Fischer has topped the world's largest classical-music poll, receiving the 2007 Classic FM Gramophone Artist of the Year award.
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The Los Angeles Philharmonic performs J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, music which is featured in a wide range of Hollywood film scores including A Bridge Too Far and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.
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The music world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Juilliard Quartet Wednesday. Host Fred Child talks with the quartet's first violinist, Joel Smirnoff. And, from a 1987 Juilliard Quartet recording, we hear Bach's Contrapuncti Nos. 2, 7 and 9 from The Art of the Fugue.
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Pianist Leon Fleisher has faced many obstacles over the years, due to a debilitating hand condition. He's regained the use of that hand now, and uses both hands to play the Bach chorale "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" at Shriver Hall on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
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In the spirit of mixing and matching music on MP3 players, Performance Today mixes a set of four short pieces, back to back, by Benjamin Britten, J.S. Bach, Mozart and Richard Strauss.
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Violinist Gilles Apap and the Transylvanian Mountain Boys appear at the Aspen Music Festival, where they perform an assortment of Irish reels, Romanian folk tunes, Django Rhinehart swing, improvisations and more.
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Pulitzer-winning composer Steven Stucky has much to say about composing, his colleagues and the music of Bach. Performance Today catches up with him at the Aspen Music Festival. Then, we hear a performance of his Partita-Pastorale (after J.S. Bach).
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New York native Richard Goode is one of the world's premiere pianists. Creators at Carnegie presents Goode in a solo recital at Carnegie Hall. He performs a program that includes works by Bach and Chopin and Debussy's evocative, impressionist preludes.
()Every two years, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival welcomes some of the world's A-list keyboard artists to Kalamazoo, Mich., for two weeks of concerts and masterclasses. Performance Today was there to capture some of those concerts, and to host of performance of its own. Pianist Angela Hewitt joins Fred Child on stage for conversation, and music by Couperin, Chabrier and Bach.
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The classical guitarist has a wide ranging appetite for music, and plays with a clear, lyrical technique. His diverse set at the desk of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen mixes the baroque, Argentine dance, West African rhythms and a classic from Spain.
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Two years ago, the Brooklyn-based pianist launched her career with a top-selling Bach CD. In the Performance Today studios, she presents more from the master, as well as a new set of variations on a Bach melody.
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For decades, British pianist Imogen Cooper has built a solid reputation on the romantic music of Schumann and Schubert. Now she enters a new era, inspired—and awestruck—by the keyboard music of Bach.
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Joyce Yang won the silver medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, in Fort Worth, Texas. She visited NPR recently to play the opening movement from the French Overture by Bach, and "Reminiscences of Don Juan," by Franz Liszt.
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In just a few years, Daniel Mueller-Schott, 28, has succeeded in establishing himself as one of the most in-demand cellists in the world. The musician performs a bit of Bach in NPR's Studio 4A.
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Fred Child is on stage at the Bishop's School in La Jolla, Calif., for SummerFest 2004. He visits with cellist Hai-Ye Ni. She plays the Sarabande and Gigue from Bach's cello suite no. 3, and the Tibetan Dance from Seven Tunes Heard in China by Bright Sheng.
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Young Austrian pianist Till Fellner joins NPR's Fred Child in Studio 4A for a chat and a performance of a pair of Preludes and Fugues from Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2.
()NPR's Fred Child recenlty welcomed the members of Canada's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra & Choir Studio 4A for a performance and conversation.
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Subtle and brilliant at the same time, J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are a microcosm of Baroque music. They contain an astonishingly vast sample of that era's emotional universe.
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Bach's Goldberg Variations function not only as a brilliant investigation of a sublime theme, but also as a masterly compendium of style and a study in how to write idiomatically for the keyboard. Murray Perahia's recording combines energetic rhythms with seasoned musicality.
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Rocker Andrew W.K., whose songs include "Party Hard," "It's Time to Party" and "Party 'Til You Puke," thinks the music of Johann Sebastian Bach stands among humankind's greatest accomplishments.
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The small, family-run record label from the south of France has thwarted the downward slide in classical music sales by choosing unorthodox recording projects and trusting its musicians. While other labels' sales have collapsed, Harmonia Mundi is thriving.
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Although it represents diverse movements, composed at different times in Bach's life, the Mass in B minor transcends the inconsistency of its origins, leaving behind a statement on the nature of sacred music as a bequest to the future.
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David Russell visits the NPR studio, classical guitar in hand, to talk about his music, the influence of Segovia and his approach to playing Bach. He also performs "Alms for the Love of God," the last piece composed by Agustin Barrios.
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In J.S. Bach's day, in Leipzig, the musical event of the season came on Good Friday, when parishioners could hear the passion story told in music. Tenor Ian Bostridge and conductor Ton Koopman join others in a guided tour of Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
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When pianist Simone Dinnerstein became pregnant, she wanted to learn an appropriately momentous piece. She chose J.S. Bach's demanding Goldberg Variations, and the music helped lay the groundwork for both a new baby and a new career.
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Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, who courageously fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents and later triumphantly played Bach suites below the crumbling Berlin Wall, died Friday in Moscow. He was 80.
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Twenty years of programs, two hours a day, every day. That's around 45-thousand performances, recorded in places as remote as alpine ski villages in South Korea, to the great cathedrals of music in Paris, to chamber music festivals in the hills of New Mexico, to NPR's own Studio 4-A. It's impossible to squeeze 20 years into two hours, so here are some sweet memories, thrilling performances, and even a few flukes.
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Arnold Steinhardt is the author of Violin Dreams, a memoir about his ultimate challenge: playing Bach's Chaconne, a 15-minute-long piece for solo violin. Steinhardt has been chasing the Chaconne for more than 50 years.
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This past summer, Performance Today went to Portland, Ore., to get to know the folks at Chamber Music Northwest. Fred Child talks with violists Paul Neubauer and Cynthia Phelps about music by Bach before their performance of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.
()Pulitzer-winning composer Steven Stucky has much to say about composing, his colleagues and the music of Bach. Performance Today catches up with him at the Aspen Music Festival. Then, we hear a performance of his Partita-Pastorale (after J.S. Bach).
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In 1685, within a period of eight months, three master composers were born: Scarlatti, Handel and Bach. Although each was extremely influential, they worked in very different ways because of their contrasting demands. Richard Taruskin, discusses the divergent paths of these three men.
()Critic Tim Page talked about Glenn Gould, the Canadian pianist who became legendary for his interpretations of Bach's 'Goldberg Variations.' Gould made a classical hit out of previously obscure works.
()American mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson has taken an unconventional career path. She's not singing the big roles at the Metropolitan Opera that are every soprano's dream. Nor is she preparing a crossover album of classic pop tunes. Instead, Hunt Lieberson finds drama within lesser known pieces. Her recent recording of Bach cantatas was named one of the ten best classical albums of the year by the New York Times and is currently No. 3 on the Billboard classical chart. Jeff Lunden has this profile.
()Jazz music host Sheila E. Anderson has compiled more than 700 quotes for a new book called The Quotable Musician: From Bach to Tupac. She talks with NPR's Tavis Smiley about some snappy quotes by musicians and other notable folks that love music.
()Violinist Hilary Hahn, 23, has just released a CD, Bach Concertos, with Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. As odd as it may seem, Hahn encourages listeners to dance to the classical composer's music. Hahn tells Liane Hansen about the CD.
()Although it represents diverse movements, composed at different times in Bach's life, the Mass in B minor transcends the inconsistency of its origins, leaving behind a statement on the nature of sacred music as a bequest to the future.
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Fleisher celebrates his 80th birthday Wednesday. Critic Tim Page chooses some of the pianist's finest recordings, highlighting Fleisher's remarkable career of triumph, loss, and rejuvenation.
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Given the proliferation of year-end Top 10 lists, it seems natural that Shadow Classics — which gives shelter to under-appreciated music — would feature its own list of 2006 recordings likely to become Shadow Classics down the line. Don't let these gems go unnoticed.
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Though her process might be described as methodical, even obsessive, pianist Iren Marik isn't chilly or scholarly in performance; she's just someone who thought about the shapes and tones individual pieces of music should convey. Marik gets at exactly what's needed to bring each piece alive and adds nothing more.
()As NPR covered the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC, it was music that gave listeners time to reflect, to digest the events and the impact. So many letters came to NPR telling us how comforted they were by the music. In this special feature, we offer some of those songs, along with images from events following the attacks.
()With votes from Gramophone magazine critics and listeners of 15 classical radio networks, Fischer has topped the world's largest classical-music poll, receiving the 2007 Classic FM Gramophone Artist of the Year award.
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The music of J.S. Bach is deeply rooted in eastern Pennsylvania. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pa, has emerged as a keeper of the tradition of singing Bach's choral music that dates back to the city's mid-18th-century Moravian settlers.
()Many DJs spun, mixed and scratched their way through Johann Sebastian Bach's "Little" Fugue in G Minor for the chance to win $500 in Eugene, Ore., this week. We hear the efforts of the top three competitors.
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For the first time in a generation, a new piece of music by Johann Sebastian Bach has been discovered. The young composer wrote the aria in 1713 while working in Germany. NPR has a portion of the forgotten aria — and its amazing story.
()A previously unknown composition by Johann Sebastian Bach has been discovered by a classical music scholar in Germany. The two-page, handwritten aria was composed in 1713 for soprano, strings and basso continuo.
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The Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Mich., recently commissioned a new set of Bach's famous "Goldberg Variations" –- by 12 different composers.
()NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr highlights some of the ways musicians have transformed the timeless music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
()Archivists in Germany are finishing up a major project to keep the original scores written by Johann Sebastian Bach from disintegrating. But to preserve them, they first had to tear them apart. NPR's Emily Harris reports.
()Musician and Day to Day contributor David Was reviews a new album of classic music written by Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded by violinist John Holloway on a Baroque-style instrument with traditional gut strings. The results sound much the way the great composer may have actually heard the instrument in his day.
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Weekend Edition Sunday music director Ned Wharton reviews a new recording by Christoph Poppen and the Hilliard Ensemble of the Cantata No. 4, also known as the Easter Cantata by J.S. Bach.
()Glenn Gould was just 22 when his performance of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" made him a star. In 1981, he recorded another version, which was radically different, and was released just a few weeks before he died of a stroke at age 50. On Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon talks with music critic Tim Page about a new album featuring both versions.
()A new CD called Morimurfeatures music by J.S. Bach, performed by violinist Christoph Poppen and the voices of the Hilliard Ensemble. The Chaconne from Bach's Partita in D is performed with solo violin, along with various church chorales. Then the Chaconne is performed again, this time with the singers bringing out secret melodies. Critic Tom Manoff says hearing the hidden layers beneath the music made him appreciate the genius of Bach even more.
()Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews Bach Christmas Cantatas, a new boxed set featuring the orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Music.
()Music critic Tom Manoff has been listening to a new recording of Bach's music performed by English violinist Rachel Podger. She performs using a Baroque violin with strings made from gut. This allows listeners to hear Bach performed as Bach himself would have heard his music. The CD is called Sonatas & Partitas Vol. 1.
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Cincinnati-based WGUC plays classical music 24 hours a day, reaching out to the genre's newcomers and longtime aficionados alike. WGUC music director Kent Teeters compiled this list of the 10 best classical CD discoveries of 2006.
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Autocratic conductor Leopold Stokowski scolded the audience at a concert in New York in 1945. We'll tell you the tale and play a couple of Stokowski's marvelous Bach transcriptions from the Sanibel Island Music Festival in Florida.
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