Bach and this matter of heaven

I have loved the music of Johann Sebastian Bach for years, decades, a near lifetime.

Among my prized CDs (millennials please google the term), is my box set of his entire works (155 CDs, Brilliant Classics).  I have attended a Bach Marathon (Ravinia), organized and attended by the late Edward Gordon and executed by the brilliant Anthony Newman, more than 30 years ago, yet still fresh in the memory:

Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Prelude, fugue Eb, BWV 552 Harpsichord Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Wachet Auf Harpsichord Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Toccata, Adagio, Fugue, C, BMW 564 Harpsichord Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Three Pieces from Clavier Book Teil III Harpsichord Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Prelude, Toccata and Fugue BWV 540 Harpsichord Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, g, BWV 659 Harpsichord Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Fugue g BMW 578 Harpsichord Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Fugue G BWV 577 Harpsichord Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 F Orchestral Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Harpsichord Concerto No. 5, f, BWV 1056 Orchestral Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, BWV 1051 Orchestral Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, BWV 1049 Orchestral Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, BWV 1048 Orchestral Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, BWV 1050 Orchestral Anthony Newman
Sun-Sep-08-1985 Bach, J.S. Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047 Orchestral Anthony Newman

I have myself played Bach:  Two-Part Inventions, Three-Part Inventions, Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations.  I have listened to his works for countless hours on classical radio, and in concert halls across America.  I wrote a book about his cantatas.  I had a vague sense I had pretty much 'heard it all,' knew all his works, major ones at least.

Then, one day, turning on classical WFMT Chicago in the car, I found myself midway among passages that I thought might be Scarlatti, but no, there was something more going on here ... that something turned out to be Bach.  It was his Aria variata (alla maniera italiana) in A Minor, Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) 989.  In the Italian manner, indeed.  I was not familiar with the work.

It appears on a new DG recording by Vikingur Olaffson, an Icelander.  Another new discovery, two in one day. Not bad.

Olaffson's record label introduces him as follows:  "For his new Deutsche Grammophon album, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson explores the wellspring of Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard music, delivering experimental, innovative and timeless performances.

"Víkingur Ólafsson is a musical free spirit with a mission. He first made the classical world sit up and listen in early 2017 with his recording of solo piano works by Philip Glass – a fascinating journey through the time and space of their minimalist structures. Glass is now followed by Bach. Set for release in September, Ólafsson’s second Deutsche Grammophon album, the pithily entitled Bach, contains a mixture of original works and transcriptions, which the pianist has woven together in intriguing style."

Quite so.  Additionally, the sonic clarity, warmth and brilliance of his tone was absolutely stunning, as were his interpretations, by turns, joyful, playful, profound, tragic, and everything else that comes to us as "Bach."

As I listened, the 989 dispersed my workaday concerns.  It elevated, ennobled, encouraged, uplifted, and transported. Indeed, for these moments, I found myself in another part of the galaxy, teleported by Bach to a better place, a perfect place.

The experience prompted the wonderment (prompted by several recent deaths in the family):  where has Bach himself been since his departure from this terra firma July 28, 1750?  In heaven, the subject of so many of his sonic meditations, developing his art?

We think so.  Bach's personal motto was Symbolum: Christus Coronabit Crucigeros, which translates, “Symbol: Christ will crown those who carry His cross,” or “Christ will crown the Cross-Bearers.”

There are some 1126 BWV opus numbers (Even this large number is incomplete as many of Bach's works have been lost, e.g., he wrote some 300 cantatas, of which we still have 200 sacred cantatas and another 16 secular cantatas5). Most of this production came about in a 50-year period.  Let's do the math.  Nearly 270 years have passed since Bach himself passed.  Five productive lifetimes.  If he has been in heaven, composing, could he have added another 5,630 works (5 x 1126)?

The mind boggles.  What would these impart, what would be their magnificence of expression, their power, glory, majesty, "sound?"

For those of us who think it near just compensation for all the ills, insults, and injustices of life to have heard the works of J.S. Bach, it might be heaven to find out.

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John A. Sarkett wrote Bach and Heaven:  The Promise of Afterlife in the Text of the Cantatas.  Other titles include Classical Music Saved My Life, Obscure Composers (1, 2, and 3), and Death in classical music:  making friends with the unfriendly.  See sarkett.com

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