17.02.2017
Coffee with Bach
On 11 March, the Hermitage Museum will host an evening of music by Johann Sebastian Bach as part of its “Mikhailovsky Theatre at the Hermitage” series. The event will take place in the Large Italian Skylight Room of the New Hermitage.
The title of the concert, “The Sublime and the Earthly”, reflects the fact that thematically the concert programme is divided into two parts. The “sublime” half comprises Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe and the Air from his Orchestral Suite No. 3.
The “earthly” is represented by his Coffee Cantata. Johann Sebastian Bach was not just a composer of liturgical music: he also wrote many secular compositions, some of which display a great sense of humour. His Coffee Cantata is one of the earliest examples of comic opera. The work revolves around a father/daughter conflict. In the first half of the eighteenth century, coffee was incredibly popular in Europe — and this is what the argument is about. The father warns his daughter that she is drinking too much coffee. If she continues, he says, she will never marry. This argument proves persuasive, and the young lady agrees to limit herself to three cups a day.
“The composer’s dry humour can be seen, for example, in his choice of instruments,” says concert master Natalia Dudik. “The daughter is accompanied by a flute, illustrating her flamboyance and capricious nature, while her stern and uncompromising father is accompanied by a basso continuo. I think the music of the Coffee Cantata would have been viewed by Bach’s contemporaries in the same way that we view avant-garde jazz today. It is light music, but it is difficult to read and perform. Bach’s compositions require an excellent ear for music, an exceptional memory, and a great deal of concentration, rather like solving a mathematical problem.”
The title of the concert, “The Sublime and the Earthly”, reflects the fact that thematically the concert programme is divided into two parts. The “sublime” half comprises Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe and the Air from his Orchestral Suite No. 3.
The “earthly” is represented by his Coffee Cantata. Johann Sebastian Bach was not just a composer of liturgical music: he also wrote many secular compositions, some of which display a great sense of humour. His Coffee Cantata is one of the earliest examples of comic opera. The work revolves around a father/daughter conflict. In the first half of the eighteenth century, coffee was incredibly popular in Europe — and this is what the argument is about. The father warns his daughter that she is drinking too much coffee. If she continues, he says, she will never marry. This argument proves persuasive, and the young lady agrees to limit herself to three cups a day.
“The composer’s dry humour can be seen, for example, in his choice of instruments,” says concert master Natalia Dudik. “The daughter is accompanied by a flute, illustrating her flamboyance and capricious nature, while her stern and uncompromising father is accompanied by a basso continuo. I think the music of the Coffee Cantata would have been viewed by Bach’s contemporaries in the same way that we view avant-garde jazz today. It is light music, but it is difficult to read and perform. Bach’s compositions require an excellent ear for music, an exceptional memory, and a great deal of concentration, rather like solving a mathematical problem.”
