The virtually limitless well of music by J.S. Bach has always had a prominent place on radio airwaves in Boston. Whether it’s an iconic work like the Toccata and Fugue in D minor or a rarely heard but emotionally riveting church cantata, Bach’s music is a touchstone, returning listeners to a foundation on which so much subsequent music has been built.
Hear The Bach Hour each Sunday at 6am on 99.5 WCRB, as well as Mondays, midnight-2am. And listen on demand for two weeks after broadcast.
Resources consulted for production of The Bach Hour include many sites, books, and other media, but in particular, the following:
- program booklets of featured recordings, including those written by John Eliot Gardiner
- Emmanuel Music and Pamela Dellal
- The Cantatas of J.S. Bach, by Alfred Dürr
- Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician and Bach's Musical Universe, by Christoph Wolff
- Bach Cantatas Website
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On The Bach Hour, John Eliot Gardiner leads the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in the composer's musical confrontation with the capriciousness of life. -
On The Bach Hour, a legendary instrument at Schlosskirche Altenburg - played when it was new by the composer himself - transmits an astonishing range of sonic color in the Passacaglia in C minor and Cantata 146. -
On The Bach Hour, Alina Ibragimova is the soloist in Bach's Violin Concerto in D minor, and Christophe Coin leads the Cantata No. 85, "I Am the Good Shepherd." -
On The Bach Hour, Masaaki Suzuki leads Bach Collegium Japan in a dramatic post-Easter cantata, and Andrew Manze conducts the composer's Triple Concerto. -
On The Bach Hour, Matthew Halls leads the Retrospect Ensemble in a work that's at once contemplative and exuberant, and Angela Hewitt plays selections from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier. -
On The Bach Hour, the enigmatic Canadian pianist dispatches one of Bach's greatest masterpieces in an interpretation for the ages. -
The conductor and organist brings Bach's fascination with Italian music to life in works inspired by Vivaldi and Pergolesi on The Bach Hour. -
On The Bach Hour, the Academy for Ancient Music Berlin illuminates a magical fusion of works by two iconic composers, and John Eliot Gardiner conducts the "Actus Tragicus." -
On The Bach Hour, Seiji Ozawa leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Hideo Saito's riveting arrangement of the Chaconne from the composer's Violin Partita No. 2. -
On The Bach Hour, Canadian Brass applies their burnished sonic brilliance and seamless musicality to excerpts from the composer's "Goldberg Variations."
