Bowman says QPAC\u2019s instrument has a beautiful collection of sounds, from \u2018little flutes through to the full-throated roar of what we call organo pleno\u2019. Photograph: Pete Wallis<\/p>\n
The Melbourne performance was so physically arduous it took him a week to recover. \u201cI could barely move, all my muscles seized up \u2026 I was hobbling about like an old man,\u201d he says. This time the 54-year-old will have a masseur helping him with his upper and lower back from afternoon onwards, during brief breaks.<\/p>\n
But the real work, Bowman says, is in the brain: \u201cOne hand [is playing] a singing melody, and I have another part in another hand, and then I accompany myself with both feet \u2013 and they\u2019re all going in different directions.\u201d<\/p>\n
To do this requires concentration \u201cat the limit of our brain\u2019s capacity,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m doing it on the spot, over and over, for 16 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
I say that it sounds insane. He pauses: \u201cIt is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why do it? Bowman, who has been playing the organ since falling in love with its vibrational sound in high school chapel, and was the first Australian to be awarded a doctor of musical arts from Yale University, says Bach\u2019s music is \u201ca perfect amalgamation of brain and soul and heart \u2026 If you\u2019re in tune with all of those, then Bach\u2019s the greatest composer ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
To play his most complex pieces, such as the five-part fugues with interlocking parts for hands and feet, is \u201clike flying \u2026 There\u2019s no feeling like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bach composed prolifically for organ from around his late teens in the early 1700s to the end of his life, and performed the compositions himself in church, as organist and director of music for various churches and cities in Germany. His catalogue of about 150 pieces ranges from short pieces of less than a minute to more substantial works of about 15 minutes, including pop-cultural hits such as his dramatic Toccata and Fugue in D minor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bowman will start his Brisbane performance with the most difficult pieces: the six trio sonatas. Bowman rehearses for his performance. Visitors can come for as much or as little of the 16 hours as they choose. Photograph: Charlie Kinross\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Some pieces Bowman \u201ccould play in [his] sleep\u201d; others he only ever performs as part of the entire corpus. Over time, his interpretations and experience of the music have changed. \u201cOverall, it becomes more comfortable. But my brain isn\u2019t quite as quick as it was when I was in my early 20s. I\u2019m now in my mid-50s and it feels different, because my head is full of 30 years of good things and absolute garbage and everything in between \u2013 life. You don\u2019t really have that when you\u2019re a student, you just immerse yourself in the music.\u201d<\/p>\n
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