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Newsletter November–December 2011 |
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FEATURE
Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo: Hindsight can be misleading. The Leipzig Incident is usually described as a huge goof. The councilmen of the German city of Leipzig go down in history as archetypal philistines because they almost overlooked the monumentally great J. S. Bach in a job search for city music director (kantor) in 1722. Bach was their fourth choice out of ten candidates, and not all council members were pleased with the appointment. “Since the best man could not be obtained, a mediocre one would have to be accepted,” wrote Councilor Platz, sealing his fate of being remembered only as a complete nincompoop. It’s a cornerstone in the romantic edifice of Bach-as-a-genius-misunderstood-in-his-time and the town fathers of Leipzig join the great collection of misunderstanders of genius with, for instance, the dozen-or-so publishers who turned down the first Harry Potter book and the record executive who told the Beatles “guitar groups are on the way out.” But are we being fair? The fact is, the Leipzig councilors were presented with an extremely strong field of applicants with diverse strengths. Bach’s employment was not a foregone conclusion for very good reasons. Foremost among them was Georg Philipp Telemann’s presence in the list of candidates. Fourty-one years of age at the time, Telemann seems to have been everyone’s first choice for any music job anyplace in 1720s Germany. Princes and potentates would practically rush out of the bushes and offer him jobs as he passed through towns.
And for good reason. Telemann possessed preternatural energy, vision, and charisma. He’d lived in Leipzig for four years two decades earlier and people there still talked about him. He’d performed brilliantly, launched music groups, and produced operas. By the time he left he was already crowding the old kantor, Johann Kuhnau, with his ambition and abilities. Surrounding himself with such like-minded musicians as then-students Johann Friedrich Fasch and Christoph Graupner, Telemann stirred up the kind of glitz and flair that many in this rapidly growing bourgeois center craved. The Leipzig councilmen were desperate to bring Telemann back in 1722. They offered him the job twice, with salary and work concessions, but he turned them down and stayed as kantor in Hamburg. Finally despairing of Telemann, the city fathers moved on to his associates. They invited Fasch—also twice—but Fasch withdrew his application rather than let down his employers in the court of Zerbst. Graupner accepted the job, but his employers in the court at Darmstadt wouldn’t let him take it. (article continues below) |
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WHEN & WHERE
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FEATURE (continued) And then it was Bach’s turn. Unlike the other three candidates, Bach had never studied in Leipzig and perhaps some of the civically chauvinistic councilors carped about his teaching credentials — hence the sour comment quoted above (plus Councilor Platz was clearly still sulking about Telemann). But Bach, at age thirty-seven, fit the same profile as the other frontrunners. Employed by Prince Leopold of Cöthen, he was a courtier with some dash to the cut of his waistcoat. And he was also a close friend of Telemann, who was, in fact, godfather and namesake of Bach’s son, Carl Philip Emanuel (Georg Philipp Telemann). Bach scholar Christoph Wolff speculates that Telemann may have given Bach the original tip about the Leipzig job. Oh, and Bach was pretty good, too. In their upcoming concert, Leipzig Shortlist (December 3 and 4), Tempesta di Mare salutes the councilmen’s choices by performing wonderful music by this Fab Four. Things turned out well for everybody. 
Fasch and Graupner stayed with their courts and continued to lead amazingly productive, interesting careers, developing strong personal voices in their music and taking advantage of the formidable instrumental talent available in eighteenth-century Germany. Both composers are now being rediscovered as avid interest grows in musicians formerly overshadowed by the Bach legend. (See, for example, Tempesta di Mare's Fasch Orchestral Works, vol. 2—buy the CD!—or read the composer spotlight on Graupner on page 1 of this newsletter.) Telemann stayed in Hamburg, which allowed him the freedom to continue being Telemann-the-whirlwind, remaining one of the best-known musical figures in Europe. Fifteen years later he traveled to France as a lionized superstar to hear his beautiful Nouveaux quatuors played to perfection by Paris’s best instrumentalists. Tempesta will be playing the collection’s #6, which Telemann scholar Steven Zohn compares to the best of Bach. Bach stayed in Leipzig for the rest of his life. He had his problems with the civic authorities, but over the next 27 years he wrote, among other masterpieces, 300 cantatas, the St. Matthew Passion, the Mass in B minor, his Magnificat, the two beloved Little Notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach and, of course, the Art of the Fugue. In hindsight, the councilmen did a pretty good job, didn’t they? |
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Tempesta’s Youtube Channel Goes Live Since last year, Tempesta di Mare has been sharing recordings of its acclaimed concert series on YouTube. We put over thirty pieces on Tempesta’s YouTube page for your enjoyment, with one drawback: there was no accompanying video, just static images. But thanks to a team of videographers and editors, we can now present films of our live perfomances in all their aural and visual glory, such as the modern world premiere of the Bourée from Fasch’s Orchestral Suite in A Minor (embedded above right) performed by Tempesta di Mare baroque orchestra. Recorded March 26, 2011, at the Old St. Joseph’s Church in Center City Philadelphia, this suite is also included on Tempesta’s latest CD: Fasch Orchestral Works, Volume 2. Visit and subscribe to our YouTube page today to watch other great concert videos, and don’t forget to join us on Facebook to receive updates on new videos and more. |
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AWARD
Tempesta di Mare receives NEA grant On November 17, 2011, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that Tempesta di Mare will receive an Art Works grant of $12,500 for fiscal year 2012. The grant will support Art of the Prophets, a performance project featuring vocal and instrumental music of 17th-century Germany with works by four major composers: Johann Christoph Bach, Nicolaus Bruhns, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, and Johann Christoph Pez. This production will form part of our 2012–2013 concert season. In March 2011, the NEA received 1,686 eligible applications for Art Works requesting more than $84 million in funding, showing a significant demand for support but also the ongoing vitality of the not-for-profit arts community in the current financial climate. Art Works applications are assessed by review panels and Tempesta's grant is one of 863 given to organizations and individual writers across the country. NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman called Art Works “the guiding principle at the NEA,” and Tempesta is honored to be a recipient of this generous program. Tempesta di Mare is one of just three baroque orchestras to receive Art Works funding this season, and is the only one with a budget of under a million dollars. For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, visit the NEA web site at arts.gov. |
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