The First B

I thought that Mark Swed’s cover story on Bach was both interesting and timely (“Whose Bach Is He?,” July 23). It does seem curious that despite his gargantuan reputation, he seems to be rarely performed.

There is a famous example of how Bach can grip a musician, so to speak. Cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973) discovered Bach’s six suites for unaccompanied cello when he was 13 years old--after not knowing that they even existed. He studied them thoroughly, working his way through them until he felt he understood them. He finally felt he was ready to play them publicly when he was 25--after 12 years of private study! And, although he was pestered for a long time by the executives at his record company (England’s HMV label, at the time) to record the suites, he resisted all urgings to do so until 1936, the year he turned 60! In other words, it took 47 years of study for him to feel comfortable, to feel that he had mastered the master’s music.

Casals was also quoted as believing that Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier” was “the foundation of all music.”

It’s no wonder that, in its January issue, Bach was the cover story in Gramophone magazine, under the heading “Musician of the Millennium?”

RICHARD T. ZUELCH

Long Beach

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Swed’s mention of Martin Scorsese’s use of Bach’s “St. Matthew” Passion in the movie “Casino” was both an unexpected and fun segue into the legacy of that composer’s music. I only wish he would have added mention of the soldiers under George Clooney in the film “Three Kings” taking potshots at Nerf footballs to “Cum Sancto Spiritu in Gloria Dei Patris” from Bach’s Mass in B Minor as they head into the desert to steal Iraqi bullion.

That scene, and the appearance of Bach’s music in it, ranks with Francis Ford Coppola’s use of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” in “Apocalypse Now” in showing the insanity and dark, perverse humor of war on-screen as we know it.

JONATHAN YUNGKANS

Bellflower

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The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has a long and stellar history of performing Bach. In the 2000-01 season, the orchestra will perform the B-minor Mass, to which Swed referred, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and music director Jeffrey Kahane will conduct the Harpsichord Concerto in F-minor from the keyboard.

RUTH L. ELIEL

Executive director,

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

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The Camerata Singers of Long Beach applaud Swed’s article. This fall we will focus on the incredible genius of Bach at our 27th annual Long Beach Bach Festival, with four concerts Oct. 14 through Nov. 5.

JIM HEARD

President,

Camerata Singers of Long Beach

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I hate to be irreverent since I am a classical music lover and I did play “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” in junior high school on the violin, but that front-page picture of Bach looks like the spitting image of Dan Aykroyd. Could you perhaps do a follow-up article tracing Dan’s family tree?

DAVID ROSENBERG

Valley Village

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Am I the only one who thinks Bach is somehow related to Mike Tyson?

AL SAARI

Fullerton