At the end of his life, J.S. Bach, a living legend at the pinnacle of his art, met the music-loving, "enlightened" King Frederick who was to present him with the Royal Theme. This gift would immediately arouse Bach's prodigious creativity, and within the space of a season he would go on to compose a labyrinthine work in which beauty, complexity and seduction are united in a work of unique intensity. The Musical Offering is both a challenge and a gift, to musicians and to all music-lovers.