Mr. Bach Comes to Call

Although it's designed to introduce young people to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, this bland, amateurish hour-long drama is unlikely to cause a headlong rush of youngsters desiring to hear the Goldberg Variations. In Mr. Bach Comes to Call, young Elizabeth, who is tired of practicing the piano, is visited by none other than J.S. Bach himself. The composer, spouting a perfectly awful German accent and accompanied by three choirboys (who are dressed in period clothes but incongruously contemporary in manner), rambles on about his life while also impressing upon the girl the beauty of music in general and his own works in particular (for all his kindly manner, this Bach turns out to be almost insufferably swell-headed). In the process, Bach plays snippets from various pieces on piano and organ, and the program features periodic excerpts from an assortment of vocal and orchestral works performed by the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, PA, and the Bach Festival Orchestra. While there are a few musical points in Mr. Bach Comes to Call that are truly informative—including a fine exhibition of counterpoint and fugue—this is disappointing, overall. DVD extras include separate tracks of the musical examples from the film, a gallery of music from other titles in the “Classical Kids” series, and DVD-ROM accessible sample pages and selected activities from a teacher's guide. Although undoubtedly well-intentioned, this is not a necessary purchase. Aud: I, J, P. (F. Swietek)