Bach-To-Bach Bliss

Forget running marathons–Ysenda Maxtone Graham has become addicted to a 12-year project that aims to perform all of the composer’s vocal works

IN order to earn the suffix ‘-athon’, the challenge in question needs to be properly demanding. A ‘readathon’ needs to be a book a day for a year, a ‘walkathon’ at least 26 miles in a day in order for me to be inspired to sponsor it and a marathon the full 26.2 miles, never forgetting that final, agonising 0.2 of a mile.

In this craze for -athons, my favourite is the Bachathon. You simply can’t have too much Johann Sebastian Bach, as anyone who remembers Radio 3’s ‘Bach Experience’ from a few years ago will agree—his music was broadcast non-stop for six days and nights. It was paradise, if your idea of paradise is wall-to-wall Bach.

You could drive to the supermarket and put the car radio on: a Brandenburg Concerto. Wake up in the middle of the night and switch on the radio: a chorale prelude. The astonishing thing about Bach was that he didn’t compose any duds among his 1,128 works.

There’s something about the sublimity and profuseness of his music that inspires people to challenge themselves to perform or record it in bulk. At the top of my birthday wish-list is Deutsche Grammophon’s new box set, Bach 333, released for the 333rd anniversary of his birth (last year). With 222 CDs and 280 hours of his music, it would be my desert-island luxury and solace and well worth the £403 price tag.