Johann Sebastian Bach

The "St. John Passion" of Johann Sebastian Bach is on my mind these days, not just because of the generally unsatisfactory account of it given recently by the Annapolis Chorale, but because of an extraordinary new recording just released to coincide with the Easter season. Bach's musical setting of the Gospel of John is captured in all its gritty, dramatic splendor by Japan's premier baroque specialist, Masaaki Suzuki, who presides over a remarkable "Johannespassion" on Scandinavia's BIS label.

Music is not, at heart, a visual medium. But what struck me about the Atlantica Chamber Orchestra, which made its debut at Pascal Theater on Friday, was how snappy this new ensemble looked. Founded and led by Annapolis Symphony concertmaster Philip Spletzer, the chamber orchestra is chock-full of handsome young string players of both sexes. Truly, it made for marvelous theater to watch them as they stood regally on stage, elegantly fiddling their hearts out in the G minor "Concerto Grosso" of Arcangelo Corelli.

Johann Sebastian Bach had his share of Rodney Dangerfield-like difficulties when it came to getting respect. One employer threw him in jail for a month when he asked permission to take a better job; others regarded him as a tiresome, not particularly talented servant. He sent six of his finest instrumental pieces - the Brandenburg Concertos - to a nobleman who apparently never acknowledged, let alone valued, them. But Bach got posthumous revenge on the unappreciative folks he encountered - in the form of artistic immortality.

In last weekend's Annapolis Symphony commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death, the orchestra went to work on three of the master's most formidable works: the 3rd Orchestral Suite, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and the great and grand choral "Magnificat." The results, though variable, paid apt tribute to the German composer whose genius propelled music out of antiquity and into the modern age with such creative force. How appropriate for ASO conductor Leslie Dunner to use the first concert of the third millennium as an occasion to tip a cap to the most influential composer of the second.

J. Ernest Green's Annapolis Chorale and Chamber Orchestra presented Johann Sebastian Bach's deeply devotional monumental oratorio St. John Passion on Saturday at Saint Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis. Performing the work in German, music director Green added historic authenticity by presenting Bach's oratorio much as it was originally done at Saint Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, where it was first performed in 1724. Green invited the audience to sing certain passages along with chorale members who were seated in the side sections of the church.

The dawning of 2000 has sent some pulses racing of late, but true music lovers know that the real essence of Y2K is the chance it offers to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death. Indeed, the staunch German Lutheran Kapellmeister is revered as few others. "The immortal god of harmony," Beethoven called him. To Debussy, Bach was a "benevolent God, to whom musicians should offer a prayer before setting to work so that they may be preserved from mediocrity." "Bach is a Colossus of Rhodes beneath whom all musicians pass and will continue to pass," said Charles Gounod, composer of the opera "Faust."

CLASSICAL MUSIC 'Well-Tempered Clavier' If asked to identify the single most important work of keyboard music, in terms of originality, depth and long-lasting influence, many a scholar would point to the Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. Book I of this brilliant collection of preludes and fugues will be performed in its entirety on the harpsichord by Richard Egarr, who recently became music director of England's top-drawer Academy of Ancient Music. This presentation by the Shriver Hall Concert Series will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive.

Imagine Peter Shaffer's Amadeus brought to you by the Marx Brothers and you pretty much get the gist of Itamar Moses' play Bach at Leipzig, which is in production at Rep Stage on the campus of Howard Community College through April 1. The 1722 appointment of Johann Sebastian Bach as music director of the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, Germany, was, without a doubt, the momentous hiring in music history. It is not that old J.S. had been a slouch in his earlier gigs. During his six-year hitch at Cothen, for example, he had composed the Brandenburg concertos, the Four Orchestral Suites, his seven keyboard concertos, and Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier, among others.

He's been dead for 243 years, but Johann Sebastian Bach can still draw a crowd.Yesterday, hundreds of music lovers made their way to St. David's Church in Roland Park for all or part of the 17th annual Baltimore Bach Marathon -- 7 1/2 hours of nonstop Bach organ music played by 15 of the area's best church organists."

Crawling along the floor in front of a Steinway grand, Michael Lawrence aims his camera at two hands busily moving across the keys to articulate complex baroque counterpoint. The resulting close-up isn't just about the actual pianist doing the playing. It says something, too, maybe even more, about the Baltimore filmmaker. Lawrence is trying to zoom in on nothing less than the enduring, inspiring genius of Johann Sebastian Bach. The film, known as the Bach Project until an official name is chosen, had its final shoot on Friday in New York with celebrated composer Philip Glass.