Bach’s Coffeehouse

Bach’s legendary concert series at Zimmerman’s coffeehouse in Leipzig attracted a lively crowd that gathered to sip coffee, chat, and listen to music. Rachel Podger directs this program channelling the intimate, congenial atmosphere of the coffeehouse with her “chamber-like approach that sounds fantastically appropriate and vividly exciting” (Presto Music).

Recreating a night at Zimmerman’s, our program includes composers that Bach admired alongside his own works. Our night begins with Bach’s Orchestral Suite no. 3, famous for its gorgeous Air. Virtuoso playing comes front and centre in Vivaldi’s groundbreaking Concerto for 4 violins in B Minor and Telemann’s dramatic Concerto for 2 oboes and bassoon. Zelenka’s enigmatically titled Hypochondria lives up to the composer’s reputation for inventiveness and originality while Handel’s brilliant Concerto Grosso, op. 6 no. 6 showcases the composer’s genius for blending national styles.

Rachel Podger has unanimously won over Tafelmusik audiences, who can listen for the “delicacy of her dynamic shifts and decorative details” (The Times) in Bach’s Concerto for violin in G Minor. Reconstructed from an earlier harpsichord concerto, the work is best known for the soulful and lyrical solo in the second movement.