Professor Martin Jarvis believes he can prove what many think cannot and should not be: it’s not Johann Sebastian Bach who composed the famous Cello Suites but his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. His research results are causing havoc in European music history and challenging scholars and musicians across the globe.
Martin Jarvis, professor of Music at the Charles Darwin University in Australia, conductor at the Sydney Opera House and artistic director of the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, is the son of a detective chief inspector. It’s probably this combination that has driven him to spend the past 20 years trying to solve the mystery surrounding the creation of the Cello Suites.
This documentary follows Jarvis’s explosive investigations and the debates caused by his research results in a dramaturgy we’ve seen in CSI: looking for clues by means of cutting-edge forensics, handwriting and documents. Filmed at impressive locations and filled with compelling and controversial statements by forensics experts, music scholars and historians, it allows us to immerse ourselves in the passionate discussion of Martin Jarvis’s theses about one of the greatest composers in history.