[gjm11]

> disappointed that they didn't get Purcell [...] a vague memory

Right idea, some details wrong. It was Telemann they wanted, and it wasn't his first job but his last, at Leipzig.

Bach was actually their third choice, after Telemann and Christoph Graupner. (Who? I've never heard any of his music either. I hear tell it's actually rather good.)

(Also relevant: they weren't exactly hiring a composer; they needed someone to compose and conduct and teach and organize. Telemann was in fact a very fine composer, but it's entirely possible that that wasn't why they wanted him more than they wanted Bach: they may e.g. have thought he would be easier to get on with, and they may have been right.)