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Donald Macleod looks at what it might have been like to learn the organ alongside the great JS Bach.

Johann Sebastian Bach is often acknowledged as one of the greatest composers of all time and yet, during his lifetime, he was often more famous as an organist. Bach became very much in demand as a performer and a teacher. He was often asked to advise on the design and renovation of expensive church instruments. He composed a great deal of music for organ and was particularly productive during his twenties and early thirties when working at the court in Weimar. All this week Donald Macleod examines Bach’s life and music through the lens of his life-long fascination with the organ, focusing particularly on his time in Weimar and exploring his role as performer organist, teacher, servant, entrepreneur and composer.

In this programme Donald Macleod explores Bach's experiences as an organ student and, later, as a a highly sought after teacher. Bach’s own education in music was sometimes fraught. His older brother wouldn’t allow the young Johann Sebastian to explore a book of keyboard pieces he owned, so Bach secretly purloined the book at night and studied it by moonlight. Bach would eventually have pupils of his own and his reputation grew to such a pitch that pupils would travel to study with him from all over the German-speaking lands. His students would often live in with Bach's family, and the composer would charge them accordingly! Whilst in Weimar, Bach trained a number of organists and his pupils would often take on extra duties like copying out music or pumping the bellows of the organ.

Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
Karl Richter, organ

Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564
Lionel Rogg, organ

Brandenburg Concerto No 2, BWV 1047
The English Concert
Trevor Pinnock, director

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (Prelude and Fugue in C major), BWV 867
Andras Schiff, piano

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (Prelude and Fugue in C minor), BWV 847
Andras Schiff, piano

Produced by Luke Whitlock, for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Wales