Brandenburg Concertos 2, 4 and 5
featuring Jack Gonzalez-Harding on Harpsichord
Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are considered to be amongst the pinnacle of Baroque composition. Each one uses a different combination of instruments and shows off different musical styles popular during Bach’s lifetime, from the French minuet to the counterpoint for which the composer himself is so well known. Bach composed the Brandenburg Concertos in 1721 at a time of transition in his life: he’d enjoyed a tremendous run as music director in the court of the German Prince Leopold, but his job security was beginning to look uncertain. It was against this backdrop that he composed these six works for Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of Brandenburg (then a territory in the Kingdom of Prussia).
Composed probably between 1732 and 1735, Bach’s Coffee Cantata is essentially a miniature comic opera that tells the story of a disgruntled father, Schlendrian, who argues with his caffeine-obsessed daughter, Lieschen, about what he perceives to be her bad habit of indulging in too much coffee.
Handel’s ‘Eternal source of light divine’ celebrates Queen Anne’s Birthday and the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1712. Whether the queen heard it or not she nevertheless granted Handel a pension of two hundred pounds a year for life!
British conductor and harpsichordist Jack Gonzalez-Harding directs a team of world-renowned period soloists in this performance of the father of western classical music’s great secular works including Piers Adams (recorder), Julia Bishop (violin) and Daniel Swani (flute).
Brandenburg Concerto No 4
Coffee Cantata BWV 211
Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine
Brandenburg Concerto No 5
Brandenburg Concerto No 2
This concert is kindly sponsored by Tester & Jones of Crowborough
