Bach & Sons is a play currently running at the Lyric Hammersmith in London which, according to this review in The Observer, is worth seeing. (There are occasions when I wish we lived closer to London!)
The one downside, according to the review, is that the play sometimes gets a bit technical (apparently it mentions ‘counterpoint’ – shock, horror!). The Baroque intricacies of Bach’s music are well known to be attractive to those who like that aspect (it is often said that many mathematicians love his music). For example, his ‘Crab Canon’ from ‘The Musical Offering’ is played forwards, backwards and then together! (If you’re interested, this blog by Colin Marshall, and the associated YouTube video, shows you how it works.)
But one of the biggest dangers in playing Bach is to focus on the technical. Fundamentally, a lot of his music is dance, and it should be played as such. Indeed, many choreographers have used Bach’s music for ballet and, bringing it right up-to-date, ‘Flying Bach’ use it with break-dancing:
But enough of all that, here’s Víkingur Ólafsson dancing through one of my favourites: the second fugue from the ’48’ (C Minor from Book 1):
