Bach's Legacy: The Music as Heard by Later Masters by Russell Stinson (review)

R ussell Stinson, Josephine Emily Brown Professor of Music and College Organist at Lyon College, has already published extensively about the reception of J. S. Bach’s compositions. A key example is his 2006 book, The Reception of Bach’s Organ Works from Mendelssohn to Brahms (Oxford University Press). Yet while much of Stinson’s earlier writing focuses on the reception of Bach’s works in the nineteenth century, the current volume considers how Bach’s pieces have been heard, experienced, performed, and perceived by four major composers. In the process, Stinson sheds new light not only on how Bach’s music was transmitted, but also on the personal reactions of composers to Bach’s music. This method provides as much information about Bach as about the composers under consideration. Stinson describes his aims in the introduction: