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

This 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.