Famous Composers - Johann Sebastian Bach
by Malcolm Hossick
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DVD details
Director: Malcolm HossickBrand: Kultur
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 35 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: D1834
Studio: Kultur Video
DVD Reviews of Famous Composers - Johann Sebastian Bach
DVD Review: Not worth a dollar
Summary: 1 Stars
First let me state that I am a huge fan of J.S. Bach. I play the organ and many of the great works of Bach for that instrument and I am someone who could legitimately be called a fanatic of his music. I state that so that you will not misinterpret my review of this documentary as representing my feelings about the man who is its subject.
This "documentary" is in short, AWFUL!!! I mean, I don't even know where to start. The producer uses no live footage except for static shots of the churches where Bach worked, the house were he lived and an occassional statue. Those shots might as well be still photographs because the camera simply sits there or pans once or twice. This is interspersed with pictures of two paintings of Bach, and drawings of the towns where he worked and some of the other composers and historic figures that he ran into. That's it! Over top of this the narrator (a man with a dry British accent) drones on, reading the most boring historical material. Because there is so little actual visual material, the production returns to the same pictures over and over again. Sometimes there is music, but just the same couple of pieces and never in context with what is being talked about. We hear, for example, about the Brandenburg concertos that Bach wrote, and the natural thing would be to hear a sample of these right? Not in this production. Silence, or some mundane performance of a harpsichord piece. Same with the Cantatas and with the B minor mass and with the organ works. They are mentioned, but no musical samples are given. Sometimes there is just silence while the picture sits for the fifth time on one of the few drawings the producer bothered to look up. Then the narration picks up again, droning on. All this lasts for about 30 minutes, which is too short a time to cover the monumental musical accomplishments of perhaps the world's greatest composer, but far too long considering the mundane techniques of this production. I am simply dumbstruck at the poor quality of this "professional" production. Please do not waste your money on this. If you have Netflix or Blockbuster Online, put it on your list and you will see what I mean. If you do, and if you manage to get all the way through it as I did, you deserve some kind of a prize.
There is a "special" feature on this disc: a representative list of the works of Bach. What a joke! It breaks his incredible output down into three basic areas and then lists about three representative works for these areas. This is all done like some kind of a bad Powerpoint presentation with a harpsichord piece (not that I don't love the harpsichord, I play it) playing throughout. Admittedly, you could divide Bach's output logically as is done but why not give us an audio sampling? How about some excitement in the voice that is reading the list? How about some more examples for each genre, such as the monumental St. Matthew Passion (in the "Religious Music" category).
I could go on, but I'll spare you. Just don't spend money on this because it will only reinforce those who do not approach such projects with creativity and a sacred ambition to represent the subject properly.
Description of Famous Composers - Johann Sebastian Bach
One of the greatest composers in Western musical history, Bach created masterpieces of choral and instrumental music. More than 1,000 of his works survive from every musical form and genre in use in 18th century Germany. During his lifetime, he was appreciated more as an organist than a composer. It was not until nearly a century after his death that a musical public came to appreciate his body of work. Bach composed over 200 cantatas, both secular and sacred. His command of many instruments and their resources is evident from his six cello suites, six violin sonatas and partitas, four lute suites and the accompanied sonatas for flute, violin, viola, and viola de gamba (now played on cello). For chamber orchestra, he composed four extended suites, as well as the six Brandenburg Concertos, and concertos for harpsichord, violin and oboe. Bach?s styles were always evolving and innovative, and always ahead of their time, which is perhaps why he met with some resistance during his lifetime and received his due respect posthumously.Bestsellers in DVD
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