Bach for Kids
Why would someone rather play Bach than be a rock star? Can somebody from Texas play Bach? How did a man with twenty children actually accomplish anything? Does a fat man in a wig have anything interesting to tell us? Why did Bach get into a knife fight? Why did Bach drive the old ladies in church to distraction? What is a musical duel? Why did they wear funny, white wigs?
Come to Bach for Kids and find out!
Bach for Kids is intelligent and fun. The show combines theatre, live performances of Bach’s music, interaction with the audience, and great stories; stories about brawls, duels and wig throwing. Bach for Kids turns a monument into a living, breathing human being.
Bach for Kids transforms stories into music and music into stories. Members of the audience also get to see, hear and touch a Bach piano.
Bleating Bach
Two eccentric musical comedians, one playing Bach, the other Victor Borge, are both extracting comic mileage out of the strange whimpering sounds you can hear on the piano recordings of the late, great Glenn Gould. In Bach for Kids at the Greenside, Geoffrey Thomas tells how he heard Gould play on his father’s old records and thought it was background static.
The Observer
Michael Coveney
The church hall venue for Bach for Kids made me feel as if I was stepping back in time to being a little girl when my Fringe festival enthusiast father dragged my kagoule wearing family to yet another show with the aim of broadening our little minds. Certainly little minds were in for a treat with Bach for Kids.
Geoffrey Thomas is keen to keep classical music alive by introducing it to the general public through the use of drama and storytelling. Thomas, a classically trained fortepianist, leads his little, and not so little, audience members through the life story of Bach, bringing him to life for children in a most beguiling manner. He tells of Bach duelling, both physically and musically, having twenty children and knocking off the organists wig in church. All this is cleverly interspersed with short interludes of Bach’s music.
For the majority of the time tiny eyes were glowing as this crazy man leapt around the stage in a white wig, frock jacket and, inexplicably, what appeared to be a kilt. The length of the show was just right for the kids - short enough that their attention didn’t wane, although there was some thumping around and sighing towards the end. At the end children are invited to come and have a look at the piano, ask questions and generally be curious which was a nice touch. I took this opportunity to ask some of the kids what they thought. “Wonderful,” said a very eloquent seven year-old. “I liked it very much. It was funny,” said a music loving nine year-old whilst parents thought it was a fantastic way to introduce kids to classical music and “not too long”. Bach for the future? I think so.
Hairline.org.uk
Are there any budding pianists in your family? This may be the show for them. Geoffrey Thomas, of the Budapest Baroque Chamber Orchestra, tells stories about Bach’s unconventional life and plays spectacularly on a pint-sized piano.
Describing Bach as “the greatest composer that ever lived, and a fat German guy”, Thomas’s anecdotes are irreverent and amusing. As well as churning out piles of complicated tunes, Bach also found time to father dozens of children, get into fights and throw a lot of wigs around.
Each small story includes a piece of music, all very polished stuff, but sometimes there is so much music that we forget the thread of the story.
The Scotsman
