Gareth Malone’s Guide to Classical Music: The Perfect Introduction to Classical Music. Gareth Malone

to a different recording for comparison. Also, bear in mind that one interpretation of the piece might seduce you, while another leaves you cold.

      Connections between pieces

      I said earlier that music can be like an old friend – a relationship that develops and matures over time. Here is a diary of my relationship with J.S. Bach. A friend once told me that he found Bach to be emotionless, mathematical and cold. I have found the complete opposite: he is ordered and precise, yes, but under that is a humanity and a reverence that I find profoundly moving. The man had twenty children and a long life by contemporary standards – to me his music oozes with the experience of living. My relationship with Bach is utterly haphazard and the result of chance musical encounters over a period of years. Without the influence of my school teachers, music teachers, friends and choirmasters I may never have developed my love of his music.

      BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP WITH BACH

      

Aged 9 (1984): Played ‘Air on a G String’ (based on the second movement of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major). Badly.

      

Aged 13: Heard Jacques Loussier’s version of ‘Air on a G String’, used in the ‘Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet’ TV ad. Played it on the piano again – slightly better than aged 9, but still not that well.

      

Aged 16: Studied St Matthew Passion at school for A-Level with Mr Fairlie. Thought it was boring.

      

Aged 18: Saw St Matthew Passion at Barbican in London. Thought it was brilliant.

      

Aged 20: Sang Mass in B Minor by Bach with University Choir. Struggled with high notes.

      

Aged 23: Sang solo in Bach’s Magnificat . Struggled with high notes.

      

Aged 24: Bought Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on CD – John Eliot Gardner recording. Had it on repeat for a year.

      

Aged 25: Saw a Cantata BWV 82 in Christchurch Priory as part of the Monteverdi Choir’s famous tour in 2000. Impressed.³

      

Aged 27: Sang at a Lutheran church in the City of London and discovered that Bach studied with Buxtehude.

      

Aged 28: Performed Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien and Matthaus Passion, pieces that Bach would almost certainly have known.

      

Aged 29: Performed as the Evangelist in both St John and St Matthew Passion. Received some good notices but was stung by a stinking review after one very difficult performance.

       And so on …

      Bach is so well established in my life that it is impossible to imagine a world without him. It’s inexplicable: there is simply something about his music that gets my brain fired up and sets my soul soaring.