This rare event will recreate Bach's favorite friday night
activity
(escaping his onerous church duties) celebrating music
and partaking in the elixir that
would take Europe by storm and distill its seductive
power to the present day.
During Bach's time, coffee was a relatively new import,
but it didn't take long for coffee
houses to sprout across Europe. By the middle of the
18th century coffee
would establish itself as a cultural phenomenon. It was
in fact considered
by many to be a vice, even more so than beer! But nothing
could stop the
aromatic brew from pouring into all strata of society,
influencing politics,
and even inspiring poetry, visual arts and music.
The coffee house in Leipzig, run by Gottfried Zimmermann
had the good
fortune of establishing a collegium musicum, an orchestra
made up of
students and professional musicians from the St. Thomas
Church. Founded by
Bach's dear friend and fellow composer Georg Phillip
Telemann, the collegium
was the focus of the evening's social activity. Many
of Bach's concertos
and secular works were performed by them, as well as
the latest works from
fashionable Italian composers, such as Vivaldi. The collegium
would soon
become a family affair, as sons Wilhelm Friedemann and
Carl Phillip Emmanuel
would perform multiple concertos alongside their father.
This was
definitely the place to sip coffee on a friday night!
The parish hall of St. Albans Episcopal Church, (1501
Washington Avenue,
Albany) an ideal and intimate space, will be transformed
to rekindle in sight, sound
and taste these magical evenings. A costumed and staged
performance
of Bach's peasant cantata, a satire about life, death,
and taxes, will
include soprano Rita Lilly and bass Paul Murray!
This will be followed by a splendid
concerto for three violins featuring three of the bay
area's most dazzling baroque
violinists, Katherine Kyme, Sara Gillies,
and Cynthia Miller Freivogel. Our collegium
will be rounded out by other luminaries of the Bay Area
early music scene.
We will be serving wonderful coffees as well as appetizers
and desserts
that would have been familiar to Bach and his contemporaries.
A fund raiser for
MusicSources, this event will feature a silent auction
and other fun
activities. The proceeds of this event will benefit MusicSources,
a non
profit organization which in spite of an ever turning
economy, has remained
as a gathering place and focal point for our early music
community, and will
be celebrating its 18th year anniversary.
¥ Tickets are $75 each ($50 is tax deductible)
Or purchase a Table for Six:
¥ Friends of Zimmermann's, $450/table
¥ Cöthen Town Council, $510/table
¥ The Court of Dresden, $600/table
On behalf of Laurette Goldberg and MusicSources Board
of Directors, we
invite you to take part and celebrate with us! Because
of limited seating,
we advise making reservations ASAP. For more information
call MusicSources,
510/528-1685.