155 Days With Bach and Me

This CD sounds like a movie score to me, something like Erich Wolfgang Korngold would have written to add flair to an Errol Flynn swashbuckler. It is majestic and triumphant and boisterous.

I like it.

Of the two Orchestral Suites on this CD, I prefer Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, although I like the sprightly Bouree I & II from Orchestral Suite No. 4, and the rousing Rejouissance (track 11) from Orchestral Suite No. 4. Some people may say this type of music is busy. But I like music that’s intricate. That’s why I love progressive rock, even complicated and technical music like that performed by Zero Hour, a guitar-laden progressive metal band that boasts so many labyrinthine twists and turns that it’s virtually impossible go keep up. Yet, I enjoy it. Those guys are massively talented musicians.

Ditto for Primus, a bass-driven three-piece band that’s as avant-garde (some say just plain weird) as they come. But Primus plays tricky, clever music that takes active listening to appreciate.

So complicated, “busy” Classical music doesn’t phase me. In fact, I thrive on it.

Which is why I dig fugues and the Baroque period. The complexity of music from that period — of which Johann Sebastian Bach was a prime example — is among my favorite compositions in the whole world.

There’s not much I can say about Orchestral Suites 3 & 4, or the tiny Sinfonia from Cantata (BWV 146) that’s sandwiched in between them on this CD. It’s fine music, but not particularly memorable.