Simon Standage is particularly renowned for his Telemann recordings with Collegium Musicum 90. The repertoire here is especially vivacious and rich in melodic invention with the doubling of oboes and bassoons used to striking effect. Telemann's penchant for colour is strongly evident in the Burlesque de Quixotte. Collegium 90 is regarded as one of today's premiere early music groups and regularly receive outstanding reviews for their Chaconne recordings. Recorded in: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London 29-31 July 2002 Producer(s) Nicholas Anderson Sound Engineer(s) Jonathan Cooper Michael Common (Assistant)

“For Several Friends“ - a high-baroque chamber music collection by Matthew Locke - was the inspiration for the title of this album, on which a colorful bouquet of German and English chamber music from the 18th century has been compiled. After the cultural life in England had almost come to a standstill in the years of the civil war from 1642 to 1649, it came to a new bloom by the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in the year 1660. The courtly music ensembles Chapel Royal, Royal Music, The King‘s Band and The Queen‘s Band have been reinstated, and a lively musical life has also sprung up in London. Annette John performs in Germany and abroad, among others with the ensembles Weser-Renaissance, Orlando di Lasso, Concerto Palatino, Concerto Brandenburg, Oh-Ton Oldenburg, the Hanoverian Court Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Boston Early Music Festival, the Bremen Council Music and the Hamburger Council Music. She is interested in both old and new music. She is a lecturer at the University of Oldenburg. Since 1995 Susanne Peuker has devoted herself to freelance teaching and concert activities. As a soloist and as a sought-after chamber music partner, her concert tours took her all over Germany and Europe. She is a permanent member of various ensembles: in addition to the musical Tafelkonfekt Fortunes Musicke, Musical Delight and Musical Playground, but also in ensembles such as Weser Renaissance, North German Baroque Collegium, Elbipolis, Capella Cantorum, Saxon Vocalensemble and the Philharmonic Bremen

Alexis Kossenko returns to centre stage with a project focusing on works by the spectacularly prolific Georg Philipp Telemann. From them, Alexis Kossenko has chosen two concertos with orchestra: one for flute, the other for flute and violin, preceded by an overture. This program, perfectly composed to demonstrate the Baroque conductor’s maturing, rising talent, is also a showcase for his impressive qualities as flautist. It is also the occasion to again find Zefira Valova as Konzertmeister and soloist in one of the concertos.

REVIEW:

Baroque chamber performers face the challenge of picking a program that makes sense from among the enormous body of small-ensemble music by Georg Philipp Telemann, and the multinational historical-instrument ensemble Rebel (pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable) surmounts this challenge. Telemann, like other composers of the first half of the 18th century, wrote lots of trio sonatas, but he also pursued the richer sonata à quattro and sonata à cinque. These are, in the main, flashier and more experimental pieces than the trio sonatas, and Rebel captures their daring qualities. Most of the movements are Italianate, but annotator John Moran (his notes are in English only) rightly points to the influence of Polish folk fiddling on Telemann's music here. Consider the Sonata Discortato à 4 in A major, TWV 43:A7 (tracks 5-8). "Discortato" means "untuned," and Telemann is thought to have derived the scordatura tuning here from Polish music he heard. The final movement is not a Polish dance but a French one, a bourrée, and it is miles away from Bach's treatments of this form; with its drones and plain melodic figures it sounds almost like a reproduction of an actual folk dance. This rustic style (explored in more detail on another Rebel disc devoted specifically to Telemann's Polish side) is balanced by flamboyant Italian sonata movements with pairs of violins and violas sounding off against each other in many combinations. It's a great deal of fun. Rebel here records in the U.S., in a church in Stamford, CT, that brings disagreeably live results, but this remains a colorful program that the Telemann aficionado will enjoy.

-- James Manheim, All Music Guide

The reserve collections of the Bibliothèque Royale of Brussels hold the sole printed copy of Telemann's Twelve Fantasies for solo flute...These fantasias considerably enrich the slender corpus of Baroque works for flute without bass, alongside two other gems, the Partita of J.S. Bach and the Sonata in A minor of C.P.E. Bach. A cycle for solo flute of this kind, arranged by tonalities and rising gradually from the key of A to that of G, is unique in the repertory...These fantasias, each with its own mood, are miniatures consisting of a succession of three or four movements in the same key. All of them have in common the concision, the formal brevity and the rapid alternation of their movements. Telemann plays on effects of contrast and surprise by switching between opposing characters and tempi. The open form of the fantasia offers teh composer an ideal field of freedom and expression for his inexhaustible imagination. A fervent champion of the reunion des gouts embracing German, Italian, French and Polish tastes, telemann covered all the genres, national styles and compositional idioms of his time. - Francois Lazarevitch

As a Hamburg-based musician Matthias Höfs has a special relationship with Georg Philipp Telemann, who was a very successful composer of operas at the city’s opera house on the Gänsemarkt. As director of music for the five parish churches of Hamburg, Telemann made a decisive contribution to the sacred music performed at those institutions. And it has not taken the 250th anniversary of his death, on June 25, 2017, for Telemann to be acknowledged as one of the most efficacious Baroque composers alongside J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel. Matthias Höfs played solo trumpet in opera for 16 years with the Philharmonic State Orchestra of Hamburg and now gives concerts all over the world, enjoying an acclaimed reputation. On his new release the star trumpeter presents works by Telemann together with the estimable Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.