The Bach Hour

Sundays 6-7am, Mondays midnight-2am

Hosted by Brian McCreath

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.

Chailly Conducts Bach, Through Mahler's Lens

L-R: Gustav Mahler (Moritz Nähr, via Wikimedia Commons); Riccardo Chailly (Brescia & Amisano, via La Scala); J.S. Bach (Elias Gottlob Haussmann, via Wikimedia Commons)

On The Bach Hour, a performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra reveals, in musical terms, one iconic composer's fascination with another, and Karl-Friedrich Beringer leads the Cantata No. 100.

Contradictory Realities in Bach's Cantata 78

statue of J.S. Bach in Leipzig — Max Pixel, CC0 1.0

On The Bach Hour, Philippe Herreweghe leads Collegium Vocale of Ghent in music that expresses the complexities of belief, and pianist Igor Levit performs the composer's Partita No. 2.

Leon Fleisher's Bach Chaconne

On The Bach Hour, an artist of uncommon vision and integrity describes a devastating setback and his path to resolution, channeling that trajectory through iconic music reflective of that struggle.

Pianist Ramin Bahrami, and Bach's Cantata 69a

The Iranian-born, Italian-trained pianist teams up with the Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in one of Bach's most joyful concertos on The Bach Hour.

Avi Avital's Bach

On the program:

Sinfonias (Three-Part Inventions): No. 12 in A, BWV 798; No. 13 in A minor, BWV 799; No. 1 in C, BWV 787 - Till Fellner

Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 (translation) - Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

Sonata in E minor, BWV 1034 (orig. for flute): IV. Allegro - Avi Avital, mandolin; Ophira Zakai, theorbo; Ira Givol, cello