Celebrating Bach programmes
At the Coffee House
Telemann Concerto in D ('Paris'
Quartet)
Bach Trio Sonata in D minor
Vivaldi Sonata for cello in B
flat
Bach Trio Sonata in D major
Telemann Suite in E minor ('Paris'
Quartet)
In Bach's time, the city of Leipzig was a
lively centre for culture and commerce. At the hub of
this activity was Zimmermann's Coffee House, where poets and
musicians met. Here, too, Bach held regular public
concerts with his 'Collegium Musicum'. This programme
recreates one of those coffee-house concerts with music Bach
may well have performed at Zimmermann's.
Bach and the Sons of Bach
J C F Bach Trio for piano,
flute and cello in D
J S Bach Preludes
and fugues from the
Well Tempered Clavier (Book 2)
J C Bach Sonata
in E flat, Op. 5/iv
Haydn
Trio for piano flute and cello
By the time of his death in 1750, Bach's
music was considered old-fashioned. Even so, the contrast
between his music and that of his sons is remarkable. Using
an original piano from the 1780s, this concert highlights the
gulf between the father and his two youngest musical offspring.
Johann Christoph Friedrich's charming trio strikes a
stylistic mid-point between the fugues of his father and the
elegance of John Christian (the 'English') Bach. Haydn's
witty trio shows how quickly and how far musical taste had been
transformed in the generation after Johann Sebastian.
Bach at Mozart's
Bach Trio
for flute violin and cello in G
Bach Preludes and
fugues, arranged by
W A Mozart
Mozart Quartet for flute and
strings in C
While Bach was becoming known in England
in the 1780s, the Viennese, too, were discovering his music.
Encouraged by his patron Baron von Swieten, Mozart arranged for
string trio some of the '48', adding his preludes of his own
composition. Rarely performed, these pieces make
fascinating listening. Framing Mozart's arrangements, we
play original Bach and Mozart: Bach's trio shows him at his
most genial, while Mozart's quartet remains a firm favourite
through its melodic charm.
Bach and the Seventeenth Century
Buxtehude Sonata in G from Op 1
Marais Sonnerie de Ste
Genevieve
du Mont
Bach Sonata for Viola da gamba and
harpsichord in G
… and other music by Bach and
Pachelbel
Our final programme draws on two cameos
from Bach's life. Whilst still a teenager, Bach had spent
months illicitly copying by moonlight his brother's collection
of music by seventeenth-century composers before his ruse was
discovered and his copy confiscated. Although the
collection has long since disappeared, it is almost certain
that it would have contained music by Pachelbel, with whom
Bach's brother had studied. Buxtehude, similarly, was an
object of veneration for the young Bach: he travelled 200
miles, much of it on foot, to meet him. We set these two
German composers in relief by including Marais's wonderful
evocation of bells in his Sonnerie, and, of course, more Bach.
Bach and Italy
Corelli Trio Sonata in D Op.
1/xii
Handel Trio Sonata in G Op.
5/iv
Bach 'Italian' Concerto
Bach Concerto for 2 violins
in D minor
The lure of Italy and Italian music was a
major force in the environment in which Bach learnt his craft
as a composer. In this first concert we explore Bach's
response to Italian music through two of his concertos: the
'Italian' concerto written for solo harpsichord when Bach was
almost 50; and the famous double concerto for two violins which
we present here in a chamber version. By way of contrast,
we hear music by Handel - Bach's exact contemporary who, unlike
Bach, studied in Italy; and music by Corelli, a native Italian,
and perhaps the single most influential Italian musician of his
time.
Corelli Concerts © 2005