J.S. Bach

My favorites are something like this:

1 St. Matthew's Passion
2 Violin Sonatas no. 1, 2 & 3
3 Concerts for one, two, three and four Cembalos + the Harpsichord Concerto used quite achingly in Woody Allen's Hannah and her Sisters, where I first heard it. If I remember right its Michael Caine's character who tries to connect with Hannah (Mia Farrow) by playing an Lp with this Bach-piece. 
4 Cello Suites
5 St. John's Passion

I've seen 1, 4 and 5 performed live, and the two passions are two of the most fantastic concerts I've experienced. Was in tears at the end of both, actually. The opening of St. John were 8 minutes of nonstop svivers down my spine. The complete cello suites concert wasn't as sublime as it should have been, because of the cellist.

These grand Passions are never the same at home, obviously Mainly because all the recitals don't work in a CD context. Atleast not for me. I get tempted to skip them.

In eighth grade, I played the first movement from his "Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins."
Great stuff, it remains one of my favorite classical songs.

Beethoven once said about Bach, while studying his works: "Nicht Bach, Meer sollte er heißen"! This is a wordplay with the name Bach, which is German for "brook"; the translation of the Beethoven quote is "Not Brook, Sea he should be called"!

I was introduced to his music through this wonderful movie called Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach. I'm still not as familiar with his works as I should be, but I greatly enjoy everything I've heard so far.

This guy needs no introduction, so I'll keep it short and sweet. This is a thread where I encourage you to list your favourite Bach works, your experiences with his music, praise his genius and overall celebrate the, in my opinion, most influential musician and composer of all music history. His list of music is almost endless, ranging from thousands of keyboard works to the masterful orchestral suites, the Brandenburg Concertos, and the list of ideas and inventions he brought to the musical table is almost as large.

So I address the entire PA community when I say this.

Let's hear it for one of the greatest composers, if not the VERY greatest composer, of all time. Hell, the music you are listening to at the moment would not be the same without Grandpa Johann.

Now show some love!