For Valentine’s Day: J S Bach, Wedding Cantata BWV 202, "Weichet nur, betruebte Schatten" (Flee away O gloomy shadows).

A mesmerising performance of one of Bach’s most exquisitely-sensual compositions.

 

 

Music that – with its “songstress” at centre stage and its bird-like flutes and strings in joyful abundance – is expressly condemned and forbidden by the deadly and deadening sharia of Islam.

Music that, if the victory at Vienna on 11 September 1683 had not occurred, would never have come into existence.

Those many infidel soldiers who fought at Vienna, delivering to the Ummah such a punishing blow that it was sent into reeling retreat for centuries, were not merely fighting to defend what already existed; they were also fighting for a world that was yet to be born; for the baby who would be born a mere two years after that victory at Vienna, and baptised Johann Sebastian Bach, and who would live to create some of the most beautiful music ever composed in Europe.. or in the world.