No 162 Johann Sebastian Bach. Part 3: Storms and Years

In the Bach anniversary year of 1985, the GDR state television screened this four-part series, co-produced with Hungarian television, which became a huge international success. With the popular actor Ulrich Thein in the role of Bach, it was a comprehensive and very human portrait of the composer from the age of 32 until his death, highly accurate in its detail and its elaborate production. We will be screening Part 3, which among other subjects deals with the genesis and performance of the St Matthew Passion and Bach’s conflicts with the unaccommodating Leipzig authorities. Actress Franziska Troegner, sensitive and endearing in her role as Bach’s second wife Anna Magdalena, is our guest in Leipzig.