Composed: Unknown
Duration: 25 minutes

As a young man, Telemann attended the University of Leipzig, originally with the intention of studying law. Music proved to be more attractive to him, and among other activities, he founded a Collegium Musicum, a society of mostly amateur musicians, who gave concerts in coffee houses and sometimes for special occasions in churches. The society survived for many years, and J.S. Bach became its director when he came to Leipzig. Telemann composed various kinds of music for these performances, including orchestral suites. We do not know whether the suite on today’s program was one of these, or whether it was composed later at one of the princely courts where he worked, or after he became music director of the Hanseatic city of Hamburg.