Great music can outlive the circumstances in which it was written—even if those circumstances were banquets, open-air spectacles or one-off ceremonial occasions designed for immediate effect and quick profit. One of the finest examples of such functional music is Georg Philipp Telemann's Tafelmusik. The title literally means "table music": works intended to be performed during banquets and formal social gatherings. Yet this is far more than mere background music. It is entertainment of the highest order – brilliant, full of dance-like grace, instrumental dialogue and subtle humour.
Few artists could get away with bringing together so many eighteenth-century "greatest hits" in a single programme. In Ton Koopman's case, however, such a choice feels entirely natural. With his enthusiasm, stage energy and uncompromising approach to music, he dispels even the slightest suspicion that the programme is designed merely for easy effect.
Koopman is one of the foremost pioneers of historically informed performance, repeatedly arguing that early music belongs not behind museum glass but in performances full of vitality, energy and imagination. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach occupies a special place in his artistic legacy: his complete recording of the composer's cantatas earned him prestigious awards. Critics have long admired Koopman for his rare ability to combine profound scholarship with the sheer joy of music-making. That is precisely what audiences can look forward to in his concert with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, where he will conduct works by four composers particularly close to his heart: J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, Joseph Haydn and Georg Philipp Telemann.
Bartłomiej Gembicki
