Programme
JS Bach : Magnificat BWV243
Kuhnau : Magnificat

Performers
Deborah York
Bogna Bartosz
Jörg Dürmüller
Klaus Mertens

Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Ton Koopman (conductor)

JS Bach could be a pretty awkward employee; he once spent time in prison over contractual wranglings and he never got on well with his employees at Leipzig, when he was producing and directing all the music for St Thomas's Church, the centre of religious, social, formal and musical life there. Bach was a reluctant second choice for the post: the city elders had wanted Telemann, grumpily noting that "because the best was not available, we had to make do with the mediocre". When Bach died they spitefully withheld his pension from his widow, who died in poverty.

All of which all seems very odd now, looking at the works of matchless harmonic daring and ingenuity that he regularly produced. (If the St Matthew Passion was considered the product of a second-choice composer, what on earth would earn the authorities' approval?)

The first work Bach wrote for his reluctant bosses at Leipzig was the Magnificat on his appointment in 1723, later revising it into the form we know today. You can hear it in this splendid recording performed by baroque specialist Ton Koopman - who knows as much about performing Bach as anyone - and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. The performance was filmed in Leipzig, inside the wonderful church of St Thomas's - outside which stands a statue of Bach, calmly surveying the church and the square.

The work is performed alongside the Magnificat by Bach's predecessor at Leipzig, Johann Kuhnau - a fascinating and rare chance to compare the two composing styles side by side. Bach, mediocre? The mind boggles.