In the last decades of the 17th century French music became
increasingly popular in Germany. Composers who felt attracted to this style
were called
Lullistes as it was especially the music of Jean-Baptiste
Lully which they admired. Some of them went to France to hear with their own
ears what was played there. This resulted in the form of the overture,
followed by a series of dances, being introduced at German courts which
looked to Versailles for inspiration. Various composers wrote orchestral
suites in the French style.
From an early age Georg Philipp Telemann was highly interested in
French music. During his career he had plenty of opportunities to increase
his knowledge of the Gallic style. He once stated that his concertos for one
or more solo instruments "mostly smell of France", but it is especially his
contributions to the genre of the orchestral suite which bear witness to his
French leanings. It is impossible to say how many he composed. More than 100
have come down to us, mostly in copies which have been preserved in the
archive of the court of Darmstadt. It is reasonable to assume that many more
may have existed. Some even speculate about the number of suites being
around 1,000. That seems highly exaggerated, although we should not forget
that Telemann was extremely productive. The number of his sacred cantatas
far exceeds that number.
This reissue of two discs which originally came out in 1999 and 2002
respectively doesn't afford a balanced survey of Telemann's compositions in
this genre. They rather focus on one aspect: music as a reflection of the
social and historical context in which he lived and worked. These suites
include character pieces and references to specific people or situations.
Here Telemann linked up with two different traditions. On the one hand
character pieces had become very popular in France, especially in keyboard
music. Many examples can be found in the harpsichord oeuvre of
François Couperin. On the other hand, some composers in the
German-speaking world had a special liking for musical imitation of
instruments, animals or situations on their violin. These two traditions
come together in some of Telemann's orchestral suites. Moreover, in these
works he demonstrates his often quirky sense of humour.
One of the most remarkable pieces is not an orchestral suite, but a
solo concerto: the
Concerto in A with the nickname 'Die Relinge', a
word which is used in some regions in Germany for the frog. There is some
doubt about Telemann's authorship, especially because of the solo part, but
its content matches his sense of humour. The solo violin portrays a frog and
repeatedly plays the same note, imitating the croaking of a frog. In the
second movement he is joined by another frog - a kind of 'courtship of the
frogs'. The nicknames of many compositions don't always reflect the complete
work, but sometimes just one movement. That is the case with the
Overture
in G with the title 'La Bizarre', which refers to the rhythmic
irregularity of the opening
ouverture.
Telemann composed several suites in which he portrayed people from
various countries. One of them is the
Ouverture in B flat 'Les
Nations', which includes movements such as
Les Turcs, Les Suisses
and
Les Moscovites. In the latter case it is not so much the people
which are portrayed, but rather the city. It is dominated by the ringing of
the bells of the Kremlin. It is well worth noticing that Telemann does so
with strings alone. Some interpreters may feel tempted to use percussion
here, but not so the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. This is one of the
features of musical imitation in the baroque period: composers felt
challenged, for instance, to imitate a trumpet or percussion with string
instruments. Suggestion is an important element in this compositional
device, and using percussion would completely take away that element. It
says much about Telemann's talent - and that of these interpreters - that
the bell-ringing comes off perfectly here. No percussion needed.
The
Overture in F with the nickname
Alster was written
in Hamburg; the Alster is a river which flows out into the Elbe. Here we
find references to nature (the singing of swans, concerting frogs and
crows), everyday events (the ringing of the bells of Hamburg, the music of
the shepherds in the Alster region) and mythological elements (Pan, Peleus,
Pallas). Telemann was often inspired by folk music. That is also the case in
the
Overture in g minor 'La Musette'. The nickname refers to the
sixth movement which imitates this rural instrument. There is also a
reference to the
commedia dell'arte: the overture ends with a
harlequinade. The
Ouverture jointe d'une suite tragi-comique
portrays various human physical and psychic troubles and offers rather
uncommon cures.
This set also includes some more 'serious' stuff. The first disc
opens with the
Overture in D which has a quite stately character due
to its scoring with trumpets and timpani. It is reminiscent of the music at
the court in Versailles where the genre of the orchestral suite had its
origin. It lends this piece a somewhat representational character as it
could well reflect the status of Hamburg as a proud and prosperous city. The
second disc opens in very much the same way: an overture for a secular
oratorio written for the anniversary of the Hamburg Admiralty. The
Ouverture in F 'La Chasse' is scored for wind instruments without
strings: two oboes, two horns and bassoon. It was written for the court
chapel in Darmstadt; Landgrave Ludwig VIII was a fanatical hunter.
This set can hardly fail to entertain. That is first and foremost
the merit of the composer who apparently had a sharp eye for his environment
and the idiosyncrasies and weaknesses of human beings. He shows that he was
a master in the art of musical representation. One can leave it to the
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin to make the most of this repertoire.
They treat the effects Telemann makes use of with distinction and resist the
temptation to lay it on thick. I was a little surprised about the speed of
the
adagio maestoso from the opening
ouverture of the
Alster Overture. A more moderate tempo would have given this section
a more majestic character. On the first disc I found the string playing
sometimes a bit dull, lacking the brilliance which is otherwise a feature of
the orchestra's sound. However, these are just small blots on a production
which no lover of Telemann's music should miss.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
