Bach for Beginners?

Johann Sebastian Bach is arguably the greatest of all musicians for grown-ups. He spent his entire life channeling the Creator. To put it simply: if you don’t know Bach, you don’t know music.

But if you’ve yet to explore Bach’s magnificent catalogue, you can sample an hour of it at 2000 tonight, on Sacred Music (BBC Four). If the programme fulfils its enormous potential, it should be a thrilling Bach for Beginners

Sacred Music, a four-parter, has been a mixed bag – the Palestrina programme, in Rome, was more engaging than the other two, set in Paris and London. The English programme, in particular, was dull. Tonight’s programme, last in the series, should be the strongest of the series; it certainly deals with the killer subject.


Gerry Smith