Anna Magdalena: the hidden star of the Bach dynasty
 

For this programme, Ensemble Diderot partners with soprano Elena Tsallagova to pay tribute to Anna Magdalena Bach – an accomplished musician in her own right. The youngest in a family of professional musicians, Anna Magdalena received rigorous training in operatic singing. In 1721, she was appointed to the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, where she met Johann Sebastian Bach. Her exceptional talent and reputation were recognized with a prestigious title of chamber musician and a remarkably high salary – second only to Bach’s, and nearly double that of her nearest peer.

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This imaginative programme brings together works that likely accompanied the Bach family on their travels and were performed in intimate domestic settings by its extraordinary members – Johann Sebastian at the harpsichord, Wilhelm Friedemann on violin, Carl Philipp Emanuel on flute, Anna Magdalena as soprano, and her brother Johann Caspar on trumpet. A portrait of a family whose music resonated wherever the road happened to take them.