Brian Cox’s Bach has to be heading for Broadway

The Score is a fine example of meat-and-potatoes theatre. Simple plotting, big characters, terrific speeches and a happy ending. The protagonist, J.S. Bach, receives a mysterious summons from Frederick the Great of Prussia. The long first act takes us through Bach’s professional woes and his physical infirmities. His weak vision is being treated by an English oculist, John Taylor, who tours Europe in a scarlet coach decorated with eyes. For unexplained reasons, Taylor decides to taste Bach’s urine, which is excessively sugary – a symptom of diabetes. When Bach reaches Frederick’s court in Potsdam he finds the atmosphere oppressive and alienating. Enter Voltaire. ‘Prussia is not a state in possession of an army,’ he says in a comedy French accent. ‘It is an army in possession of a state.’

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Bach doesn’t realise that Frederick’s invitation is a trick. With a gang of scheming musicians, Frederick has devised an intractable sequence of notes which he asks Bach to turn into a three-part fugue at the keyboard. Bach, being a genius, wins the wager easily but the dramatic arrangement of the challenge is very craftily handled with plenty of surprises to keep you guessing. After winning the jackpot, Bach gives it away to a deserving cause. He then rounds on Frederick in front of the entire court and attacks Prussia’s foreign policy. He cites numerous abuses inflicted by Frederick’s drunken soldiers and he demands reparations for their offences. Plenty of topical echoes to enjoy here. The chastened Frederick agrees to ‘look into’ the atrocities but he stops short of promising actual cash.

This political scene is followed by lengthy metaphysical conversation as Bach and Frederick discuss military ethics, the nature of faith and the capacity of music to transcend everyday experience.