In Friday’s (1/3) Seattle Times, Tom Keogh writes that Bach’s “mini-comic opera called ‘Coffee Cantata,’ in which a father tries talking his daughter out of her caffeine obsession by promising her a husband … most likely premiered at an appropriate venue: the Café Zimmermann in Leipzig, Germany, a coffee hangout where Bach took a weekly break from his regular duties as music director for the city’s principal churches. ‘He had a huge, stressful job,’ says Jeannette Sorrell, harpsichordist and director of the Cleveland-based orchestra Apollo’s Fire. ‘What he liked to do to let his hair down was lead informal concerts on Wednesday nights at Gottfried Zimmerman’s café.’ … Sorrell makes her Seattle Symphony debut Jan. 10-11 conducting and playing in a chamber program called ‘Bach’s Coffeehouse’ … conceived for Apollo’s Fire but presented in Benaroya Hall with Seattle Symphony musicians Mark Robbins (horn), Demarre McGill (flute), Elisa Barston (violin) and Cordula Merks (violin), includes Sorrell’s arrangement of Vivaldi’s ‘La Folia (Madness).’ … Also on the bill is Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins in A minor and Telemann’s Horn Concerto in D major. Bach is represented by his Orchestral Suite in B minor.” Sorrell “takes the spotlight with the ‘Brandenburg’ Concerto No. 5 in D major.”
Posted January 7, 2014
