In many ways, Johann Sebastian Bach paved the way for the likes of fellow legendary composers Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. The latter even referred to Bach as the “original father of harmony.”
The German-born Bach, who rose to fame in the early 1700s, represents the apotheosis of the baroque period. He was a master of developing new compositional techniques. His use of inversion, rhythmic modifications and transposition all contributed to what’s been described as an “organic” sound, fusing of the intricacy of Renaissance composers with the emotive harmonies of the baroque era.
He was also a teacher who was obsessed with new technologies in music and sound. Pieces such as his Brandenburg Concertos have been used for centuries as models to teach orchestration and instrumental technique. Yet Bach was also something of a mystery, and he didn’t leave many clues about how to perform his compositions.
“From Beethoven on, you have composers who were aware of their lasting appeal and were giving you a lot of information on how to perform these pieces,” Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz said. “But Bach precedes all that. When you look at the score, it’s just a sea of notes with very few dynamic markings.”
Haimovitz, 50, along with frequent collaborator, pianist and former host of NPR’s “From the Top,” Christopher O’Riley, 69, think they may have decoded Bach’s true sound at long last through intensive study and the use of period-accurate instruments that Bach cherished: the cello piccolo and the clavichord.
The duo releases a new record titled The Bach Dialogues this week. To celebrate, the musicians are hitting the road for a four-date mini-tour that includes a performance at Radio Bean in Burlington on Friday, January 30.
Both musicians have visited the Queen City before, though their previous appearances were in more classical music-friendly environments than the Bean, one of Burlington’s most eclectic venues. In a recent interview with Seven Days, O’Riley and Haimovitz, who live in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, respectively, said performing Bach in a club doesn’t faze them.
“We’ve both been doing our thing for a long time. Matt was taking Bach music into clubs while I was taking Radiohead into concert halls,” O’Riley said, referring to his 2003 album, True Love Waits: Christopher O’Riley Plays Radiohead.
The two friends first started collaborating together on the 2011 double album Shuffle. Play. Listen., which combined classical pieces with modern indie-rock songs.
“The first time we played together, we rehearsed for 12 hours straight and never broke a sweat,” O’Riley recalled. “I’d never had a work experience like that. I learned to trust him, which is fundamental to the process; our collaboration is a matter of ultimate trust.”
“There’s just no filter or ego attached at any stage,” Haimovitz added. “It’s pure immersion in the art, which is rare. And a lot of that is down to just throwing ourselves off of a cliff with these kinds of projects.”
Haimovitz points to their embrace of baroque instruments as an example of the high-wire techniques they employed on their new record to get as close as possible to Bach’s original sound.
“It’s unbelievable what Chris can do with these historic instruments,” he said. “The keys on a clavichord are spaced differently, the touch and feel is so different … I don’t know how he gets those articulations out of it. I really don’t.”
The clavichord forms the backbone of The Bach Dialogues. A stringed rectangular keyboard, it was by most accounts Bach’s preferred means of composing. But the tiny instrument isn’t loud enough to be played live, and using a microphone to amplify it only results in feedback and distortion.
While recordings of solo clavichord music do exist, such as the work of the late Ralph Kirkpatrick, recording a clavichord at the same time as any other instrument is much trickier. So the duo tracked at Skywalker Sound in California, filmmaker George Lucas’ state-of-the-art recording studio. O’Riley and Haimovitz laid down the clavichord and cello piccolo tracks simultaneously to achieve a synthesis of historical instruments and modern recording techniques.
Haimovitz and O’Riley have endlessly studied Bach’s work. O’Riley posts videos on his YouTube channel about his deep dive into Bach’s 1722 sprawling, educational collection, The Well-Tempered Clavier. And Haimovitz has been playing from Bach’s own handwritten scores, scouring them for the scant clues the composer left about how to reproduce his work.
“I tell my students who are playing Bach: It’s not the age of the iPhone,” said Haimovitz, who teaches at the University of Minnesota. “With modern tech like the iPhone, everything is about consistency. There shouldn’t be variety or change. But in baroque music, you have to embrace nature and the variety of our human experience. There’s a beautiful tension between the notes and the bow strokes and the way that as each note is brought up, another one is being put in relief. It’s endlessly human to me.”
Since making the record, O’Riley and Haimovitz have learned even more about Bach’s compositions that they’ll get to share with audiences on their four-date tour, which also includes stops in Hanover, N.H., and Newton and Amherst, Mass. “I think we will have a different performance for Burlington than you even get on the record,” O’Riley said.
The Radio Bean show will highlight the sonatas on The Bach Dialogues. As our interview went on, though, O’Riley and Haimovitz started playfully debating what else might make the set list.
“We haven’t really ironed the set out totally,” Haimovitz admitted. “Maybe we’ll do some Philip Glass as well.”
“We should really do ‘Pyramid Song,’” O’Riley added, shouting out the duo’s previous recording of the cut from Radiohead’s Amnesiac.
Whatever they perform, the show promises to be a unique experience, particularly at a club more accustomed to hosting EDM, indie rock and drag shows than a project with the heft of The Bach Dialogues.
“I hope when people come to the show or listen to the album, they’ll experience the affect and emotional impetus of Bach’s genius,” Haimovitz said. “We can try to find formulas and continue a dialogue with his music, but in the end, it’s about the music being universal. He was just so skilled at putting you in an emotional state, even with just a single note.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Get Bach | Christopher O’Riley and Matt Haimovitz decode the master of baroque with their Bach Dialogues“
This article appears in January 28 • 2026.
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