Bach

10 did it for Boléro, now Fifty Shades is giving a 16th-century composition a bounce

I’ve been listening to a lot of Bach lately. It’s like diving into the ocean. I gave away some tickets to Les Violons du Roy’s Montreal performance of the St. John Passion because I had to be in Toronto for the NDP convention; the music student I gave them to told me I had to check out the Berlin Philharmonic’s performance of the St. Matthew Passion. So I did. It kind of knocked me out.

I recently ordered a new CD (yes, I still listen to some music in disc form) that hasn’t been released in North America yet but has been available in France for some months: a recording of Bach’s much-recorded Mass in B Minor by the French conductor Marc Minkowski and his period-instrument orchestra Les Musiciens Du Louvre.