Housed in Musselburgh's splendidly refurbished Brunton Theatre, this was never intended to be a simulation of 1730s Leipzig coffee house culture, but more a voyage of research and discovery, in which we would embrace the research, guesswork and known unknowns which inform the quest for authenticity. Konditormeister (Master Baker) Falko Burkert, who supplied knee-weakening cake for the capacity audience, explained that recipes used today date from 1820-60 rather than from the time when Bach frequented Gottfried Zimmerman's establishment. The mention of lark pie, eventually banned by the King of Saxony, was fascinating.
Dunedin Consort Director John Butt and historian Nicholas Phillipson discussed with Lammermuir Co-Artistic Director Hugh Macdonald a wealth of related topics including: coffee house culture and The Enlightenment; the fact that these establishments doubled as temporary offices and places of entertainment; the varied 2-to-3-hour Friday evening concerts that Bach would put on with his Collegium Musicum; the differences between producing an authentic document and a performance – a modern, inauthentic audience forming part of the equation.
Three Bach works flanked these gustatory and intellectual moments, beginning with Orchestral Suite no. 1 in C major BWV1066, which Butt felt almost certain would have featured chez Zimmerman. Scored for two oboes, bassoon, three upper strings and continuo, the sound was beautifully clear. Bassoonist Joe Qiu's nifty playing in the fugato passage of the Ouverture was particularly striking. The same quality informed Tuomo Suni's second violin and Alfonso Leal deal Ojo's viola in the Forlane which furnished a breathless counter to the more oxygenated upper lines. Use of dynamics and articulation was very well considered, particularly in the four paired dances, whose repeats and da capos might otherwise result in a sense of the overly familiar. This felt especially true in the Bourrées where the energy expressed somehow felt like a living, moment-to-moment decision as opposed to a predetermined, unwavering given.
Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht BWV 211 the “Coffee Cantata” is a 'must hear' for those who regard Bach as severe. It was delivered here with a wonderfully light touch, particularly by sonorous bass Matthew Brook whose opening 'kids these days' aria exuded the comic exasperation of a sorely tested parent. Soprano Mary Bevan shone in the role of the quietly defiant daughter determined not to foreswear the era's drug of choice – coffee. Katy Bircher's frothy flute obbligato soared effortlessly above and around Bevan's eulogy to caffeine with an ease which made light of considerable artistry. Tenor Thomas Hobbs joined Brook and Bevan in the closing trio whose commenting nature transformed the singers from their roles of father, daughter and MC to something more akin to members of a Greek chorus.