This 53-minute documentary, one episode in the six-part Canadian TV series, Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach, attempts to link Johann Sebastian Bach's personal and professional life with the modern world. It is structured by director
Patricia Rozema (
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing) around the six movements of Bach's Suite No. 6 with cellist
Yo-Yo Ma performing amid traffic on an island in a busy street, on a rooftop, and at other locations around Manhattan. Olympic gold medallists Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean execute a graceful ice-skating accompaniment to the music because Ma believes "they did for ice-skating what Bach did for cello." Bach biographical information is provided by Tom McCamus. This film was shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. Other episodes of this series featured a Bach-inspired garden designed by Julie Moir Messervy, dimensional digital recreations of Piranesi engravings, and
Yo-Yo Ma collaborations with Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando, choreographer Mark Morris, and film director
Atom Egoyan. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide