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Georg Philipp TELEMANN
(1681-1767) Suite (Ouverture) in A minor for recorder, strings, and basso continuo TWV55:a2 *** Concerto in E minor for recorder, transverse flute, strings and basso continuo * Concerto in G for viola, strings and basso continuo ** Ouverture des Nations ancient et modernes in G, for strings and continuo TWV55:G4 * Frans Brüggen (recorder) Frans Vester (transverse flute) Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord) Chamber Orchestra of Amsterdam * André Rieu (conductor) * Concerto Amsterdam ** Frans Brüggen (conductor) ** Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester *** Friedrich Tilegant (conductor) *** Recorded at Bennebroek, Netherlands in December 1967 and May 1968 TELDEC APEX 0927 40843 2 [68.51] |
This is a highly enjoyable disc, full of joyfully tuneful music which is continually full of surprises. The degree of inventiveness and imagination which Telemann shows in these four examples of his creativity never ceases to amaze. He produced a vast amount of music in his sixty years as a composer, peaking as he did in the two years 1705-1706 when in the employ of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz. The Count had been on a ‘grand tour’ and returned enthused by the arts he had seen and heard while in France, whereupon he encouraged his Hofkapellmeister to compose according to the overtures and dance suites of Lully. The formula of this French ‘ouverture’ became fairly predictable, a slow opening in a dotted rhythm, a more contrapuntal quasi-fugal section, and a varied reference back to the rhythm of the opening in the third section. Thereupon the ouverture gathered to itself a collection of following dances to form a suite consisting of such movements as Passepieds, Réjouissances, Polonaises, Airs, Menuets and so on. Telemann wrote an incredible 134 suites which we know of, the bulk of them pre-1721 when he arrived in Hamburg. Not only did he imbue the French and Italian styles, but also the Polish (hence the Polonaises) with its trenchant rhythms and colourful melodies. The suite depicting the various nations, old and new, is full of graceful, wittily charming music, some of it tongue in cheek such as stolidly ponderous Germanic, a poised Swedish sarabande, and a rather swaggering gavotte for the Danes. Each nation is given a ‘before and after’ approach with the old followed immediately by the new, and generally slower followed by faster in terms of tempo. |
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