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'Perhaps there was a fundamental reluctance in [Bach] to pull back the curtain and reveal himself; unlike most of his contemporaries, he turned down the opportunity to submit a written account of his life and career when the opportunity arose.' If only the same were true of John Eliot Gardiner. As charming and well-researched as this survey of the Bach’s choral music may be, I can't help but feel an underlying self-indulgence throughout—a sense that, behind the ostensible portrait of the Cantor of Leipzig, lies a self-portrait of Gardiner himself, ever eager to share with his readers the magnitude of his musical undertakings and the calibre of his professional credentials.

The intended audience is also something of a mystery to me: is this a book for the literate musician, who is starved almost entirely of musical dots throughout, or for those, in Bach's own words, 'not presentable in music', who will no doubt find the lengthy passages of musical description/analysis a tad off-putting.

That said, there are many redeeming features: the brilliant exploration of the John Passion as music-drama, the refreshing foray into the milieu of Leipzig's coffee houses, the biographical rigour worthy of any Bach scholar. And, yes, the writing style, which is occasionally verbose but always full of life—a good recipe for that slightly curious genre of popular musicology.