2 - Bach: A Passionate Life

A 90-minute film for BBC2. Internationally renowned conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner goes in search of Bach the man and the musician. The ubiquitous portrait of Bach – aged 62 – shows a grumpy old codger in a wig and formal coat, yet his greatest works were composed in his late 30’s and early 40’s in an almost unrivalled decade-long blaze of creativity. Then there is his life-long tendency to clash with authority, evident from an early age with accounts of public brawls, being thrown in jail…