Why was JS Bach the greatest?

Transcript of a six-page pre-concert talk given by R Casteels on 2-VII-2008 at the Victoria Concert Hall in the frame of Singapore International Piano Festival led by reviewer Chang Tou Liang and entitled Bach to the Future, 300 years of piano masterpieces:

• the Bach phenomenon within musical families;

• Bach's own life;

• His career;

• Fusion music;

• Bach crossed successfully musical genres/ content versus form;

• Bach's preoccupation with biblical symbolism and numerology;

• Bach wrote great music that crossed spiritual boundaries;

• Well-tempered tuning system;