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Bach's Coffeehouse
Bach's Coffeehouse in Bloomington, MN
Current price: $21.99
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The image of
Bach
writing works for Gottfried Zimmermann's coffeehouse in Leipzig has exerted a strong fascination ever since coffeehouses once again became sites of musical creativity, and one can hardly blame conductor
Jeannette Sorrell
for gathering a group of diverse performances with her Baroque group,
Apollo's Fire
, under a
Bach's Coffeehouse
rubric, even if someone should have edited the "Starbuck's" in her enthusiastic note to remove its apostrophe. Although not Italian, this conductor from the U.S. Midwest has effectively developed a punchy style in Baroque orchestral music that resembles that cultivated by contemporary Italian conductors, with big contrasts and vivid orchestral effects. It is deployed to its best advantage here in
Telemann
's
Burlesque de Don Quichotte, TWV 55
("
Don Quixote Suite
"), which delights audiences today with its depictions of junctures in the novel just as much as it must have in its own day. These performances were made at different places and times, and it is not clear whether the
rubric works for all of them.
Sorrell
's sweeping arrangement for orchestra of the "La Folia" movement of a
Vivaldi
trio sonata is certainly thrilling in itself and offers a good example of this remarkable conductor's style, but it seems too large in scale for a coffeehouse.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, BWV 1049
, however, works beautifully, with
keeping a good balance among the various instrumental parts even as the whole is strongly propulsive. The sound -- recorded at various churches around the Cleveland, Ohio, area -- is a major disincentive here; it is not idiomatic to the music at all, and it harshly clashes with the intimate, warm coffeehouse scenario
sketches out in her notes. Nevertheless,
's brisk readings, in themselves, are compelling, and this is another strong outing from this major early music ensemble from a part of the world where such things are not so common. ~ James Manheim
Bach
writing works for Gottfried Zimmermann's coffeehouse in Leipzig has exerted a strong fascination ever since coffeehouses once again became sites of musical creativity, and one can hardly blame conductor
Jeannette Sorrell
for gathering a group of diverse performances with her Baroque group,
Apollo's Fire
, under a
Bach's Coffeehouse
rubric, even if someone should have edited the "Starbuck's" in her enthusiastic note to remove its apostrophe. Although not Italian, this conductor from the U.S. Midwest has effectively developed a punchy style in Baroque orchestral music that resembles that cultivated by contemporary Italian conductors, with big contrasts and vivid orchestral effects. It is deployed to its best advantage here in
Telemann
's
Burlesque de Don Quichotte, TWV 55
("
Don Quixote Suite
"), which delights audiences today with its depictions of junctures in the novel just as much as it must have in its own day. These performances were made at different places and times, and it is not clear whether the
rubric works for all of them.
Sorrell
's sweeping arrangement for orchestra of the "La Folia" movement of a
Vivaldi
trio sonata is certainly thrilling in itself and offers a good example of this remarkable conductor's style, but it seems too large in scale for a coffeehouse.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, BWV 1049
, however, works beautifully, with
keeping a good balance among the various instrumental parts even as the whole is strongly propulsive. The sound -- recorded at various churches around the Cleveland, Ohio, area -- is a major disincentive here; it is not idiomatic to the music at all, and it harshly clashes with the intimate, warm coffeehouse scenario
sketches out in her notes. Nevertheless,
's brisk readings, in themselves, are compelling, and this is another strong outing from this major early music ensemble from a part of the world where such things are not so common. ~ James Manheim
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