The Bach Hour | CRB

The Bach Hour

Sundays 6-7am, Mondays midnight-2am

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.

Bach's Three Lives, in the Partita No. 4

Pianist David Fray plays music that reflects Bach as a composer, teacher, and performer, and Masaaki Suzuki leads the Cantata No. 108 on The Bach Hour.

Bach, on the Legendary Altenburg Organ

Trost Organ at Schlosskirche Altenburg
ecv5 / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

On The Bach Hour, John Eliot Gardiner leads the imposing and, ultimately, exuberant Cantata No. 146, anchored by an organ the composer himself considered one of the best of his time and place.

Lost and Found Bach

The discovery of music that had disappeared centuries ago is a rare and thrilling experience, as Bach scholar Christoph Wolff tells host Brian McCreath, in a Bach Hour that features such a discovery, "Alles mit Gott."

Bach's Mass in B Minor, with David Hoose

courtesy of Cantata Singers

On the program:

Selections from Mass in B minor, BWV 232 (translation) - Arleen Auger, soprano I; Ann Murray, soprano II; Marjana Lipovsek, contralto; Leipzig Radio Choir; Staatskapelle Dresden, Peter Schreier, conductor

Bach's Easter Oratorio

Matthew Halls
Stephen Page

On the program:


Preludes and Fugues from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier:  No. 10 in E minor, BWV 879, and No. 15 in G major, BWV 884 - Angela Hewitt, piano

Easter Oratorio, BWV 249 (translation) - Carolyn Sampson, soprano;  Iestyn Davies, countertenor;  James Gilchrist, tenor;  Peter Harvey, bass;  Retrospect Ensemble, Matthew Halls, conductor

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