Among the more than 1,400 preserved church cantatas from the pen of Georg Philipp Telemann's are a remarkable number of works for solo bass. A Erkl�run this is found quickly: Telemann himself was an accomplished baritone, the absence of adequate singers often also himself "sang to the point of fatiguing" if he had to. The four cantatas of this CD come from the so-called "Brussels Year". In Klaus Mertens they find an excellent singer, the Telemann would certainly like to let go first.