Roots of Jacques Loussier

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a Polish pianist, composer, philanthropist, and statesman. As a politician and diplomat, Paderewski was vital to securing international recognition of the newly formed Second Polish Republic in 1919. A musical virtuoso, he rose to prominence as a musician and composer in the late 1880s and toured widely in Europe and the United States. He wrote orchestral, instrumental, and vocal works and an opera, Manru, which remains the only opera by a Polish composer performed by the Metropolitan Opera.