Coffee, Tea or Bach?

This weekend, a most interesting concert will be taking place at St. Barnabas Church on Queenston Street in St. Catharines, Sunday afternoon at 3 pm.  Primavera Concerts, one of the more creative local musical presenters, are presenting The St. Catharines Chamber Music Society in a concert titled simply, "Coffee!"

Now, I am not a coffee drinker.  I have always been an avowed tea drinker, save for my first few years in the radio business almost 40 years ago when everyone around me drank coffee, so I did, too.  Yes, the ubiquitous "double-double" was my drink back then, which I believe was a quarter a cup at the local greasy-spoon next door to the radio station in Toronto back then.  One day, I thought about it and decided I really preferred tea to coffee, so why drink coffee just because everyone else does.  I have been something of a lone wolf ever since then, even forsaking more convenient tea bags for traditional loose-leaf tea I feel gives me a better cup of tea.  I even use an automatic tea-making machine every morning at the radio station made for awhile by TriniTea in the United States.  I love the fact it brews the tea and keeps it warm in the pot on it's own hot plate element, so throughout the morning I have a hot cup of tea waiting for me.  I know, I am more of a tea aficionado than most, but I can't sacrifice quality for convenience, even when it comes to tea.

But I digress.  Even though the concert is titled "Coffee!", I won't feel left out Sunday afternoon, since the concert is being presented in a coffee-house setting with coffee and cake being served.  Next to tea, cake is very near and dear to my heart.  That explains why I am a regular at the 'Y', by the way...anyway, what more could you want than great music, the drink of your choice and...cake?  Sounds like a deal, right?

The centre-piece of the concert, of course, is the secular cantata # 211, known as the "Coffee Cantata" by J.S. Bach.  This is about as close as Bach ever came to musical comedy; he was a notoriously serious musician who laboured long and hard in churches creating some of the greatest sacred music ever written.  But even Bach knew people had a weakness for coffee, so when he wanted to write a lighthearted piece, coffee was an easy choice for the subject matter.

In Bach's time, coffee was still rather new to Europe and a bit of a novelty.  But there was no denying the drawing power of the beverage, and in fact coffee houses soon sprang up throughout Germany at the time where people would gather, drink, and discuss the news of the day.  It was a much earlier version of our modern-day Tim Hortons, if you will.  The Coffee Cantata, in fact, premiered at Zimmerman's Coffee House in Leipzig and was presumably a big hit.  The cantata tells the tale of a father who takes away his daughter's privileges, one after the other, unless she stops drinking coffee.  The daughter is not swayed and continues drinking coffee until her father threatens to prevent her from getting married.  However, the daughter outsmarts dear ol' Dad by making a secret deal with the groom whereby the groom must allow her to drink coffee even after they are married.  History does not seem to record if the groom liked coffee as well, although I would imagine he would.

All of which brings us to Sunday afternoon's concert at St. Barnabas, featuring musicians from the St. Catharines Chamber Music Society, including Jonathon Dick, baritone; Charlotte Knight, soprano; Paul Williamson, tenor; as well as musicians Charlene Nagel and Xiaoling Li, violins; Andree Simard, viola; Gordon Cleland, cello; and Karin Di Bella, keyboard.  It promises to be a fun afternoon of music and food and of course, drink.  In addition to the Coffee Cantata by Bach, other caffeine-related music by the likes of Satie, Weill, Bolcom and others will also be featured, I'm told.

If, after you attend the concert, you decide you need a copy of Bach's Coffee Cantata for your personal collection, I am featuring a fine recording of both Cantatas 210 and 211 in my Fine Music Newsletter this month, out this past week, and will be featured on the website in the Mike's Picks section starting this week.  The performance includes soloists along with the Bach Collegium, Japan, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki on the Bis label.  Just go to www.finemusic.ca and click on the Mike's Picks page this week to find out more.

For tickets to the concert tomorrow, you can book in advance at www.primaveraconcerts.ca or pick them up at the door.

See you at the concert tomorrow, oh, and save some tea for me, will you?

January 21st, 2012.