As someone who listens to a lot of "Classical" music (more late Classical, early Romantic if we're being specific) I've never really understood the modern universal appeal of Bach.
I find so much of his music quite impenetrable and kind of overwhelming. Things like the Cello Suites with their single line of music very demure. Whenever I try to listen to the Well Tempered Klavier as a set I'm quickly saturated by the third or fourth pair...
It's usually not until I sit down at the piano and play Bach and read the score that I'm then suddenly profoundly moved by the almost divine quality of his music and the "just so" genius writing of his music. But being truly honest I struggle to hear it at face value often - am I just slow / a poor listener?
Don't fall into that trap. You like what you like. Bach wrote hundreds of pieces. There's no reason for anyone to "get" or "like" them all, or indeed any single one of them.
Personally, I like some of the piano and cello pieces but they only get played once or twice a year. Whereas his vocal works like the St John Passion and Ich habe genug from cantata BWV82 get played a lot. Everyone is different!
The thing is that when I listen to things like the Goldberg variations and Preludes and Fugues I'm quickly saturated. But if I sit down and play them, and study them their acclaim and brilliance becomes apparent.
So the problem isn't the music or my taste but more that I'm unable to hear their brilliance in the space of one or two listens.
I agree. I also get much more out of playing Bach than listening to him. I almost never listen to Bach for pleasure, but I know a few fugues and the like. Playing them makes you feel like a god; listening to them feels like an assault.
The exception, for me, is the Goldberg Variations which I find have a stately and refined beauty. It's one of very few in the classical canon that I find myself returning to over the years.
I find so much of his music quite impenetrable and kind of overwhelming. Things like the Cello Suites with their single line of music very demure. Whenever I try to listen to the Well Tempered Klavier as a set I'm quickly saturated by the third or fourth pair...
It's usually not until I sit down at the piano and play Bach and read the score that I'm then suddenly profoundly moved by the almost divine quality of his music and the "just so" genius writing of his music. But being truly honest I struggle to hear it at face value often - am I just slow / a poor listener?