[YT]2MhpoAZJd_g[/YT]
BBC Radio recently broadcast a 30 minute programme on the Bach Collegium Japan. You can still listen to it here for a few more days. It's a fascinating story of how Masaaki Suzuki was determined to put together a top class Japanese ensemble to perform the works of Bach. European audiences doubted that Japanese had the sensibilities to interpret the work of such a seminal composer at a meaningful level and Suzuki describes how he was dismissed as "Bach in kimono". One critic claimed their German pronunciation was terrible. Suzuki started in 1990 and, despite such scepticism, went on to establish the BCJ as one of the world's leading baroque musical ensembles, some would say the best. German audiences sometimes find their pronunciation to be clearer than some local performers.