The New York Times
By William Robin
Beginning in 1720, Café Zimmermann — the largest coffeehouse in Leipzig, Germany — launched a weekly concert series featuring the Collegium Musicum, the city’s most prestigious ensemble. Nine years later, Johann Sebastian Bach took over direction of the Collegium, inaugurating one of the great historical moments for the intertwining of caffeine and music.
The Cleveland period-instrument group Apollo’s Fire takes Bach’s Zimmermann residency as the theme for its Carnegie debut on Thursday [March 22, 2018], with a program focused on popular fare performed by the Collegium at the famed coffeehouse, including works by Telemann and Handel as well as Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos No. 4 and 5. With harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell at its helm, Apollo’s Fire has been celebrated for its boisterous revitalizations of canonic Baroque works such as Sorrell’s thrilling orchestration of Vivaldi’s “La Follia” sonata, which will be featured at the Zankel Hall performance.