Coffee Concerts in St Brendan's Church Bantry June

 

Ensemble Diderot and Anna Devin  Coffee Concerts in St Brendan's Church 

Monday 26 June 11am Ensemble Diderot

Ensemble Diderot is renowned for its inventive programmes. Here they have created a programme for mid-eighteenth century Berlin that ignores the flute-playing King Frederick the Great for whom Bach and so many other composers of that era wrote new works. In a sense the programme cannot escape the musical monarch for he was responsible for bringing so many fine musicians to his city. Somewhat like Berlin today a place where musicians gather leads to much music-making and Frederick’s Berlin provided many opportunities for concerts similar to Leipzig’s Café Zimmermann. Critically for us the situation encouraged chamber music in the form of trio sonatas including programme music based on the two characters, depressive Melancholicus and hot-headed Sanguineus conversing with each other.

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Wednesday 28 June 11am Café Zimmerman  Anna Devin & Ensemble Diderot

Café Zimmermann was a famous coffee-house in Leipzig where Bach’s weekly Collegium Musicum concerts took place. This Coffee Concert features the great triumvirate of Bach, Handel and Telemann. Bach’s D major Harpsichord Concerto is a re-working of the famous E major Violin Concerto, given Bach’s super-human workload it is not surprising that he borrowed extensively from himself when composing new works for weekly concerts and services. Anna Devin joins Ensemble Diderot for Handel’s cantata Armida abbandonata.

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Friday 30 June 11am Anna Devin & Ensemble Diderot

Ensemble Diderot’s resurrections of long-buried Baroque pearls leads us to more music from pre-Classical Germany. A particular joy is the opportunity to hear the darkly burnished tone of the Ensemble’s cellist, Gulrim Choï, as soloist in Ignatz Mára’s C major Cello Concerto. Mára was a leading member of Frederick the Great’s Berlin orchestra, who took the opportunity of Johann Janitsch’s Friday Academies to demonstrate their virtuosity. The Baroque solo cantatas were mostly written for private chamber music performance and were clearly composed to show off the virtuosity of a particular singer. The Apollo and Daphne myth is an ancient Me Too story where Daphne escapes her divine rapist through transformation into a laurel tree, while the god’s frustrated desire must itself be transformed into worship and devotion. Graun’s cantata focuses on the moment of Daphne’s transformation and Apollo’s reaction, Graun and his unknown librettist would have assumed that their educated audience knew the full story. The music is fabulous, tailor made for Anna Devin. 

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