A cafe founded by Gottfried Zimmermann and located in St Catherine Street was a hallmark of the 18th-century Leipzig. It was the place where concerts of the ensemble Collegium Musicum took place, managed by famous composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach. Works that will feature during the March concert could may have been played also during his concerts at the cafe.
They were held at Café Zimmermann once a week, and admission was free. Orchestral and chamber music were played, as well as secular choral compositions and fragments of operas. Works of the elder cousin of the author of Goldberg Variations, Johann Bernhard Bach were performed there. The programme of the concert will include one piece of this forgotten composer - the Overture in G minor, opening one of his four preserved suites. The Bergamo-born Pietro Locatelli has gone down in history as a violin virtuoso and composer responsible for the dynamic development of playing techniques for this instrument. The artist also willingly wrote orchestral works, and among them the Concerto grosso in F minor op. 1 no. 8. This is a serious, dignified work full of reflection, in which the composer was inspired by the work of Arcangelo Corelli. Bach greatly valued the work of the now forgotten Johann Friedrich Fasch. During the concert, the Concerto in D major by Fasch will be performed, a concise piece intended for trumpet, two oboes, strings and basso continuo.
Franz Benda, who came from Bohemia, was a virtuoso of the violin. The evening programme includes his orchestral Sinfonia in B flat major. Full of energy and at the same time quite short, the work is a good introduction to get to know the composer’s oeuvre. The culmination of the concert will be the performance of the seven-movement First Orchestral Suite in C major by Johann Sebastian Bach. The work consists of an Overture followed by six dances. These are: Courante, Gavotte, Forlane, Menuet, Bourrée and Passepied. The form of the suite originates from France, but was also extremely popular in Germany, and a testimony to this are the four preserved works of the Leipzig cantor.