Quote:
Originally Posted by Rubato
Why? I doubt anyone is saying he's a great man, just that he made a great contribution to music and became the cornerstone of modern classical music. Much in the same way Schenker's ideas probably would have been overlooked if Salzer hadn't stripped his theories of far-right political motives.
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Agreed - while some of the things that great people in history did or believed are terrible, to disregard their achievements in other areas is... to deny the silver lining, I guess. Wagner may have been ridiculously racist, but that doesn't change nor affect his music. Had his music been
about slaughtering jews, then it would be rather different.
Regarding Bach - I would certainly recommend any of his Cantatas, depending on how much you like choral music. I love listening to them, but as a choral singer I would understand if I could be said to have more of an attachment to them than normal :P
As Burning Down said, The Brandenburg Concertos and The Art of Fugue are also well worth listening to, The Art of Fugue particularly as it is one of those pieces that is crying out to be played with, and many pianists do, so you get everything from the classical, metronome interpretation that is often associated with Bach, to the weirdly weighted and rather different interpretations of Jazz Pianists like Joanna McGregor (I tried to find a clip on youtube of her contrapunctus interpretation, to no avail).