Ravinia_2018_Issue_2_Week

Telemann seem to have met when both were in

their s. Despite the inevitable competition be-

tween them, the two were close friends. In

Telemann became godfather to Bach’s son Carl

Phillip Emmanuel. Bach paid tribute to Tele-

mann by studying his music and performing it

with the Collegium at Zimmermann’s.

ough Telemann was four years the elder,

he was de nitely the more trendy and for-

ward-looking of the two composers. His sense

of musical humor, lightness, and use of folk el-

ements greatly endeared him to the public. e

fact that Telemann’s music is not only lighter but

easier to play than Bach’s would have also con-

tributed to his widespread popularity. Where-

as only a dedicated professional could master

Bach’s works, many talented amateurs could play

Telemann for pleasure. In fact, Telemann, who

received four times as much space in th-cen-

tury German music encyclopedias as Bach did,

was praised for not composing like Bach.

Telemann’s

Don Quixote

Suite,

is inspired by Cervantes’s

novel, in which

the crazed and impoverished Spanish nobleman

Quixote sets out with his long-su ering servant

Sancho Panza to revive the glory of medieval

knighthood. His search for adventures includes

an attack on some windmills, which he mis-

takes for fearsome giants. (We have fun with

the windiness of this movement.) Don Quixote’s

sighs for the Princess Dulcinea are intermingled

with the quickened pitter-patter of his heart. e

movement entitled

Sancho Panza berné

(

Sancho

Panza Tricked

) portrays the incident in which

the unfortunate servant is caught by rogues and

tossed in a blanket, while his master escapes. e

nale, with its ironic title of

Don Quixote Asleep

is a frenetic, perpetual-motion piece evoking the

racing mind of the Spanish madman.

Bach had already composed most of his con-

certos during his previous employment as Ka-

pellmeister of the orchestra of the Prince of

Köthen. At Köthen, he had presided over an

excellent ensemble of eight to ten musicians,

most of whom were true virtuosi. e ever-pop-

ular

Concerto for Two Violins in D minor,

, had most likely been written for

that ensemble—so Bach easily revived it for the

Collegium Musicum, with the best of the stu-

dent musicians taking the solo parts for perfor-

mances at Zimmermann’s Co eehouse. e rst

and third movements feature lively ritornellos

that show the in uence of Vivaldi. In the rst

movement, the two soloists engage in a dramatic

discourse, while in the second they converse se-

renely as two intimate friends, in sunny F major.

In the third, they launch into a ery and virtu-

osic duel.

In his great Ouverture-Suites (or Orchestral

Suites), Bach imitated the French Baroque style.

Suite No. in B minor,

, is a

famous quasi-concerto for the Baroque ute.

Tonight, we are performing three of the six

sparkling dance movements, which beautiful-

ly showcase the ute.

Polonaise

is a proud

and stylized dance inspired by Polish music, but

popular among the French aristocracy in Ba-

roque times.

Menuet

is an elegant French

dance, and

Badinerie

means “chatter” or “play-

ful gossip” (

badinage

). e title perfectly ts the

rapid chatter of the solo ute part.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos had been writ-

ten in the earlier Köthen period, when he had

a professional virtuoso orchestra at his disposal.

e Margrave of Brandenburg, to whom Bach

dedicated the set of six concertos, will forever

live in infamy because he never had the pieces

performed or even sent Bach a thank-you note.

However, it is actually not surprising that he

didn’t arrange for a performance; he didn’t have

an orchestra of the caliber to play such virtuoso

concertos. In any case, the concertos were un-

doubtedly performed by the Collegium Musi-

cum under Bach’s direction at Zimmermann’s

Co eehouse.

Brandenburg Concerto No. in D major,

, requires from the harpsichordist a

level of speed in the scalar passages that far ex-

ceeds anything else in the repertoire. One has to

train for this piece the same way one trains for

an athletic event. Also, the unusual role of the

harpsichord in this concerto—starting o play-

ing

basso continuo

(easy), then playing solo mel-

odies in dialogue with the ute and violin (mod-

erately di cult), then getting carried away into

virtuoso scales (very di cult), and nally leav-

ing the others in the dust as one contemplates

the universe in a huge solo cadenza (moun-

taintop experience)—makes this piece a unique

emotional experience each time one plays it.

Bach made a thorough practice of studying

the works of composers he admired. Part of

his method for absorbing another composer’s

style was to transcribe the pieces for other in-

struments. e composer whose works he most

o en transcribed was

ANTONIO VIVALDI

(1678–1741)

ere is no surviving record of

7+E RISE 2F &2FFEE IN 7+ɨ&EN7URY /EIP=I*

Entrepreneur Johann Lehmann opens the rst co ee stall in the town marketplace.

1 0

New co eehouses are thriving, and Leipzig’s town council reacts by ordering them to stop

serving at : p.m., and by banning women from entering. is ordinance seems to have

been largely ignored.

1 0

A pamphlet appears showing women having a co ee party, with the sardonic caption “Even if

we’re drinking ourselves to death, at least we’re doing it in the latest style.”

1 11

e eight co eehouses of Leipzig form a consortium to keep further entrepreneurs from

opening more (foreshadowing Starbucks’ near monopoly?)

1 2

J.S. Bach takes over the concert series at Zimmermann’s Co eehouse, which hosts the most

famous of the co eehouse orchestras.

Georg Philipp Telemann

Johann Sebastian Bach by J.J. Ihle (c. 1717–23)

Christian Ludwig, Margraf of Brandenburg by

Antoine Pesne (c. 1710)

JUNE 2 – JULY 8, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE