One of the most ambitious cycles of concerts for Bach’s anniversary year Conductor John Eliot Gardiner is one of the world’s most respected interpreters of J S Bach and in his most ambitious project yet, he performs all of Bach’s 300+ cantatas within a year. Each cantata will be performed on the Sunday and feast-day for which Bach wrote it, a staggering compression of Bach’s three years of cantata writing into one year of performance. Gardiner’s backers and supporters range from the mighty record company Deutsche Grammophon to HRH the Prince of Wales. This documentary follows Gardiner in his personal quest to bring Bach’s music to a modern public. Fly-onthe- wall material helps to explore the logistical nightmare of co-ordinating all the singers, orchestras and choirs needed for this mammoth operation.
 
Only a fraction of Bach’s extraordinary output is known today. For 250 years, performers have been daunted by the sheer scale of this body of work, and it wasn’t until recently that somebody embarked upon the marathon of learning and recording all of them. Gardiner’s drive to perform these cantatas rivals Bach’s own effort in composing them. The programme also explores how and why these works were written, and Bach’s difficult times with his own choir and the church authorities. And it also explores Gardiner’s parallel modern-day problems of logistics and performance. As the milestones of Bach’s church year approach, Gardiner’s task of preparing and rehearsing becomes more challenging. A fascinating portrait of one man’s attempt to perform all of Bach’s cantatas in a single year.

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