Several students are currently learning Bach, so I’m sharing some all-time favorite recordings below.

Here is current CSO artist-in-residence Hilary Hahn back in 2007, performing a movement from Bach’s Sonata #2 in A minor for violin. Her ability to use double stops to bring out the multiple lines is amazing — at times it’s hard to believe only a single violinist is playing!

Here is Leonard Bernstein with pianist Glenn Gould, performing Bach’s Keyboard Concerto #1 in D minor. Gould is able to bring Bach’s musical ideas to life on the piano, communicating their essence beautifully.

In this 1992 recording of the Prelude to Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major, Dutch baroque cellist Anner Bylsma takes his time, reveling in the contours of Bach’s musical architecture. Bylsma’s baroque instrument resonates marvelously, recreating the pedal tone G in the opening bars that the organist composer surely had in mind.

In this 1958 recording, violinists Yehudi Menuhin And David Oistrakh perform Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins:

Here, early jazz musicians Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli, and Chicago’s own Eddie South put their own spin on Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in this “hot” recording:

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and vocalist Bobby McFerrin team up on the beautiful Air from Orchestral Suite #3, convincing us that Bach at the apex of the Baroque was master of both the old and the new. Bach seems to prefigure Chopin and Satie here as he tests the boundaries of G Major.