In contrast, James Runcie, author of the popular Grantchester mysteries, tries to get at Bach by telling a story. In his novel The Great Passion, we meet thirteen-year-old Stefan Silbermann, who is sent to school in Leipzig and there becomes a soprano soloist in the choir of J. S. Bach, during the time when Bach wrote and conducted his monumental St. Matthew Passion.
In Runcie’s book we meet Bach himself, or rather the Bach imagined by a gifted writer—a loving curmudgeon who is devoted, heart and mind, to music, and through music to his family and friends, including Stefan.
I highly recommend both books. Between the two, they paint as complete a portrait as you’re likely to get of this famous, nearly unknown man.
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