Listen to biography of music composers

Johann Sebastian Bach ()

Bach is the definitive Baroque composer. If you have sublime Bach you don’t need the others (and we’re only half kidding).

Born in in Eisenach in Germany, Bach was a prolific composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist.

The music he wrote spanned forces – from solo instrumental works, such as the Cello Suites (below), to huge sacred choral pieces, instrumental concertos like the Brandenburg Concertos, and collections of keyboard music, including The Well-Tempered Clavier, that pushed contemporaneous instruments to their limits.

Read more: 10 of Bach’s all-time best pieces of music

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ()

Continuing the tradition of names with three words and four well-formed syllables in the middle one, is the child prodigy and all-round genius, Mozart.

Composing in, and defining, the Classical era, Mozart wrote