“Bach Burlesque” – between coffee & beer

Cantatas BWV 211 & 212

The first, written for the entertainment of customers at the famous Café Zimmermann, and the other, written for the birthday party of Carl Heinrich von Dieskau, Lord, landowner and tax collector near Leipzig — Bach’s “Coffee” and “Peasant” cantatas are like miniature operas filled with picturesque characters, their interests and concerns. A universe in which the soloists and musicians of Ensemble Masques take pleasure in the humourous side of Bach, who applies his musical genius to protagonists with human foibles familiar to us all. Two instrumental pieces complete this programme.