There's quite a gap between Bach the Person and Bach the Composer, and it's not obvious that it's possible to really appreciate the music without appreciating the person.
Classical music relies on standardised narratives that cluster around ideals of hard work, repetitive action, restraint, intellectual prowess, powerful but tightly controlled emotional expression, transcendence, and individualised heroism.
All of those narratives are are historically questionable.
The best creative artists have always been subversive and difficult. It's more realistic to see historic composers as part of an unbroken line of interesting people that continues through to the present - not as marble museum pieces of perfection.
There's quite a gap between Bach the Person and Bach the Composer, and it's not obvious that it's possible to really appreciate the music without appreciating the person.
Classical music relies on standardised narratives that cluster around ideals of hard work, repetitive action, restraint, intellectual prowess, powerful but tightly controlled emotional expression, transcendence, and individualised heroism.
All of those narratives are are historically questionable.
The best creative artists have always been subversive and difficult. It's more realistic to see historic composers as part of an unbroken line of interesting people that continues through to the present - not as marble museum pieces of perfection.