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Book Guts Baroque for a groupmuse

The Weimar Social Club


Details

Guts Baroque full profile / Baroque String Duo / 2 musicians

Composers featured: Bach, Telemann, Pisendel

Other players: Rebecca Shaw


Full program notes

While Johann Sebastian Bach was working in the court at Weimar, he met and worked with many famous musicians and composers, some of whom became lifelong friends. In particular, Bach became good friends with Georg Philipp Telemann, who worked in nearby Eisenach. The two were similar ages, and Telemann stood as godfather to Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel. While passing through on his way to Leipzig, the violinist Johann Georg Pisendel stopped in Weimar, where he, Bach and Telemann became close friends.

Our program features sonatas for violin and continuo by Bach and Telemann, as well as one that is likely a collaboration between Bach and Pisendel. The manuscript is in Pisendel’s (distinctively messy) hand, but the style is similar enough to Bach’s works that it was originally catalogued as Bach’s and given a BWV number. The current consensus attributes it to Pisendel, but definitely influenced by Bach.

Come listen to some strange and dark music created by the masters Bach and Pisendel, and then let Telemann’s sonata lift your heart back to joy!

Bach's Sonata in e minor, BWV 1023, opening with the dark-side cousin to his E major Partita prelude
Pisendel's Sonata in c minor, the most metal piece on the program
Telemann's Sonata in A major, a joyful contrast to the first two to bring us peaceably back into the world after our wild ride


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