Classical Music

Our most recent Telemann album is a special highlight for the Christmas season! It brings together three Christmas oratorios from Telemann’s Oratorischer Jahrgang for the church year 1730/31 and a cantata from the annual cycle Musicalisches Lob Gottes printed in score form in Nuremberg in 1744. The oratorios are new discoveries and premiere recordings. Even if the works concerned are of cantata length, the term “Oratorio” is in this case perfectly justified. Not only the soprano, alto, and other vocal parts sing but also personified allegories such as Faith, Hope, and Love. Telemann’s musical realization of the poetic sources of the writer and musician Albrecht Jacob Zell is distinguished by great imagination and subtle artistry. The affections and emotions contained in the texts penned by Zell and the Biblical texts inserted by him in the arias and choruses are developed logically and with great feeling: here Telemann employs and combines the whole spectrum of compositional techniques at his command. Telemann’s opulent settings were made to order for the rich resources of Hamburg’s church music, for which he had available eight vocalists as well as some twenty instrumentalists.

Telemann's twelve Fantasias, TWV 40:2-13 hold endless fascination, not only for flutists, but for a variety of instrumentalists. These works represent a unique, thorough, and systematic exploration of writing for unaccompanied flute. Leonard Garrison brings these great works fully to life. Leonard Garrison is University Distinuished Professor of Flute and Associate Director of the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho, flutist in The Northwest Wind Quintet and The Scott\/Garrison Duo, and Principal Flutist of the Walla Walla Symphony. A recipient of an Idaho Commission on the Arts Fellowship, a Presidents Mid\-Career Award at the University of Idaho, and 2016 prizes as Instrumental Soloist and in Chamber Music from The American Prize, he is faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. He has recorded eleven critically acclaimed albums for Albany Records, Capstone Records, and Centaur Records and been a soloist on National Public Radios Performance Today, winner of the 2003 Byron Hester Competition, concerto soloist on both flute and piccolo, and a frequent performer at National Flute Association conventions.

Telemann’s Wedding Serenata Georg Philipp Telemann never missed the opportunity to delight those around him with countless compositions treating the subject of love and its consequences. The origins of his enormous achievement in this field are certainly to be sought in his personal disposition: in his exuberant joy in composition, combined with an open, optimistic attitude in his dealings with his environment, which in his works not rarely revealed his roguish sense of humor. And so he above all was very much in demand as a composer of wedding pieces. The texts of the wedding serenata »Liebe, was ist schöner als die Liebe« undeniably exhibit mirthful exuberance and belong to the most original and wittiest musical creations of all by this composer. The serenata has the form of a disputatio, a dramatic dialogue in which an advocate of marriage (Ametas, soprano) and a skeptic (Crito, tenor) are in disagreement about the usefulness of the institution of marriage. The album also includes the solo cantata “Lieben will ich,” in which the imponderables of love are celebrated in witty free texts, and the cantata “Der Weiberorden,” which quite clearly was composed in conjunction with a wedding feast and in lighter tones enables to join the young bride in joyous anticipation of her future married life.

“Specializing in unknown repertoire, cpo is now serious about uncovering yet another veritable treasure:” this is what klassik-heute wrote of Vol. 1 of our Wind Overtures by Telemann. This master of all musical trades was also active and extremely successful in the field of Harmoniemusik – the compositional genre for wind ensembles entrusted with military, hunting, and table music. The wind version of the work known as the “Alster Overture” heard along with other works on Vol. 2 is regarded as a model example of this artistic philosophy of Telemann’s. However, what is a more important key to the significance of the work is the knowledge that the movements following the overture are practically to be understood as an audio instrumental preview of the serenata composed by Telemann and going along with them. In this overture suite the “musical artist” presents to our ears highly atmospheric sound depictions of Hamburg and what were then its country surroundings, through which the Alster River flowed. Even the singing swans majestically gliding along the Alster are represented in a wonderfully beautiful sarabande. At the end there is a spirited gigue in which shepherds, hunters, nymphs, and Pan, as it were, gather together again in order to conclude the musical preview anticipating the serenade.

Expert in Baroque repertoire and making period discoveries, the Philadelphia-based ensemble Tempesta di Mare extends the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Telemann’s death with this unique album played on historically authentic instruments. This recording is the first to bring together Telemann’s three surviving concerti-en-suite, from the intimate Concerto di camera to the more extravagant and impressive Concerto-Suites. Like many seventeenth-century German composers referring to their national idiom as a blend of French, Italian, and German styles, Telemann, who added rustic Polish music to this stylistic soup, quickly became the standard-bearer for this ‘mixed taste’ during the early eighteenth century, writing Italian concertos with a French accent, French overture featuring moonlighting concerto soloists, and Polish folk tunes that exuberantly dance their way into arias, concertos, sonatas, songs, and suites. One of his more interesting mixtures is the concerto-suite, a subgenre in which a soloist is featured in an opening concerto-allegro and in a following series of French dance movements. The three surviving works of this genre are brought together here for the first time.

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REVIEW:

It’s all top-drawer stuff. Not least thanks to the beautifully blended sound of the whole: crisp strings, mellow woodwind, subtle-but-there harpsichord and theorbo and a gorgeous soft-focus halo of horns. In short, every instrumental timbre is beautifully looked after.

– Gramophone

PENTATONE presents Telemann’s rarely-performed opera Miriways (1728) with a stellar cast and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin conducted by Bernard Labadie. Star vocalists such as Andre Morsch (Miriways), Robin Johannsen (Sophi), Sophie Karthäuser (Bemira), Lydia Teuscher (Nisibis) and Michael Nagy (Murzah) offer a string of beautiful baroque arias and scenes in this German-language opera. Miriways is a piece about love, duty and truthfulness, and was based on recent political events in Afghanistan and Persia that actually made headlines in European newspapers, demonstrating the eighteenth-century fascination for the Orient. The opera was recorded live during the Telemann Festival Hamburg in 2017. The Akademie für Alte Musik is generally seen as one of the best period-instruments ensembles of today, and has a substantial PENTATONE discography, including CANTATA with Bejun Mehta (2018), as well as Handel’s Concerti grossi op. 6 (released in 2019 and 2020). Robin Johannsen featured on Handel’s Parnasso in festa (2017). Andre Morsch, Sophie Karthäuser, Lydia Teuscher, Michael Nagy and Bernard Labadie make their PENTATONE debut.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Telemann published the Kleine Kammermusik in 1716 in Frankfurt: his second published collection, intended for performance equally with violin or flute. His preface indicates that these pieces share a light and cantabile style particularly tailored to amateur performers on their respective instruments, with relatively narrow intervals in the solo part. Nonetheless, their unfailingly stylish melodies invite performance by professionals such as this trio of Italian musicians, experienced in period-instrument performance and with a catalogue of distinguished albums on Brilliant Classics to their credit. The dance movements in each of the six Partitas are quintessential Telemann: brief, unaffected by false intensity even in the three minor-key works, always infused with a lively appreciation of harmony, beautifully proportioned structures and voice-leading that enables each voice of the counterpoint to be heard at any point. Telemann himself advertised the lack of chromaticism with charming candor: ‘I also cultivated the brevity of the Arias, partly to preserve the energy of the performer and partly to avoid boring the listener's ears due to the length… Finally, I have tried to present something that could meet everyone's taste.’ In this it can be conclusively said that he succeeded. The most recent collaboration of these fine musicians was a Brilliant Classics album of recorder sonatas by Marcello, Vivaldi and Bellinzani (96052) which attracted critical praise both for the rarity of the repertoire and the idiomatic finesse of the performances.

Classical Music

Making their Resonus Classics debut is period wind ensemble Syrinx with a programme of works by Georg Philipp Telemann. Revealing a fascinating blend of styles, Telemann’s wind music is an eclectic mix of perfectly balanced Baroque dances, full-blown orchestral overtures and character pieces exemplified by the rustic miniature of Les Paysans and the gentle slumber of muted double-reeds in Le Someil.

Telemann World-Premiere Recordings. Between 1717 and 1765 Georg Philipp Telemann composed more than 1, 700 cantatas for performance on all the Sundays of the church year. Some dozen annual cycles from his period as music director in Frankfurt am Main and above all those from his Hamburg years have come down to us. In quantitative terms, the four Sundays of Advent and the three days of Christmas are the most strongly represented – with almost about two hundred cantatas. Apart from the cantatas for solo voice and solo instrument with basso continuo from his anthology Harmonischer Gottesdienst of 1725, only a few compositions for larger ensembles from this treasure trove have been edited and recorded. This album features four cantatas by Telemann that may be regarded as world-premiere recordings. They are musical gems that impress us with their melodic originality and musical character and even after more than 250 years are very much worth being performed again!

"Tremendous fun!", "Scintillating!", wrote the journalists of Diapason and Classica about the most recent recording of Olivier Fortin and his ensemble, devoted to the rarely heard Romanus Weichlein, which received every honor from the French musical press (Diapason d'Or, Choc de Classica, FFFF Telerama). This year, the Canadian harpsichordist and his loyal band have decided to record Telemann, the 250th anniversary of whose death will be commemorated in 2017. Two anonymous musicians from the city of Hamburg wrote in 1728 that "Handel composes music" but Telemann composes "music and affects". The overture-suites by Telemann presented on this recording are written in a "mimetic' style: Les Nations, the Concerto Polonois, La Bizarre and the Burlesque de Quixotte explore a vast range of subjects and, even more than all his other works, reveal a man of the theatre, widely read, curious a humorist and a shrewd observer of the physical and political world around him.

Throughout his life, from his very beginnings right up to the end, Telemann wrote for the basse de viole (as the French called it) and especially in chamber music. Of course, the viola da gamba also plays an important role in works intended for larger formations, such as concertos and orchestral suites, church cantatas and, lastly, oratorios. According to the custom of the time, Telemann also used the viol in funeral cantatas. Furthermore, he wrote for it as a solo instrument: for example, the Sonata in D major, TWV 40:1, recorded here, or sonatas for two viols or for viol and basso continuo. The present recording brings together various works with solo viol, selected from different periods of the master’s output. Here one will find a double concerto for recorder, viol, strings and continuo, two solos with basso continuo, a sonata for solo viol and two quartets.

Musicians have long known about the existence of Telemann's Fantasias for viola da gamba, but until very recently no surviving copies had ever been located. Fortunately a single print edition was identified by two musicologists in the Lower Saxony State Archive in Germany. In 2016 these important pieces were at last presented to the world in a modern edition which includes a complete facsimile of the original print. John Dornenburg has made numerous recordings for Centaur Records. After many years based in San Francisco, he is now based in the U.K.

The work group formed by Telemann’s overture suites is regarded as exemplary and even today offers a wealth of discoveries – and the three works presented here in album recording premieres certainly answer this description. It is difficult to determine the chronological order of Telemann’s extant overture suites because the composer incorporated very different influences into them, not only from French music since the invention of the form by Jean-Baptiste Lully but also from the “Lullists” active in Germany such as Johann Sigismund Kusser, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, and Johann Fischer. And for Telemann’s pronounced tendency to mix existing formal, stylistic, and generic traditions, the overture suite formed an absolutely ideal foil. Here we can find diverse characters, formal combinations, and stylistic interconnections in great supply. The great imagination and spirit at work here are also shown in the plentiful stores of surprising ideas that shine like flashes of brainstorm lightning in various passages.

Pondering the Baroque violin repertoire, one would be forgiven to think of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works and little else. Acclaimed English violinist Thomas Bowes courageously sets out to change this preconceived notion with TELEMANN FANTASIAS, a rare and remarkable full performance of all of Georg Philipp Telemann’s solo violin fantasias. Telemann is to violinists what Mozart is to keyboard players: deceptively simple on paper, notoriously difficult to master in actuality. Bowes, never a stranger to a challenging repertoire, expertly articulates the cheer, spirit, and zest of these pieces with a strikingly light-hearted panache, as if it could be no different. Indeed, upon listening to this rendition, it is easy to imagine a future in which public performances of Bach’s pious partitas are habitually rounded off by Telemann’s buoyant secular fantasias. For Bowes, this future is now.

Each of the three violin concertos by Telemann on the seventh volume (but not the last!) of our complete series merits separate consideration in view of its singular musical character and special transmission history. In two cases stylistic descriptions and evaluations are bound up with the question of the authenticity of these compositions. This applies to the Overture Suites TWV 55:A8 and TWV 55:A4. Our expert booklet author Dr. Wolfgang Hirschmann regards the attribution of the first suite to Telemann as entirely justified, even though it perhaps involves a rather early example of this composer’s concerts en ouverture. The interpretation of this work by the Wallfisch Band is a multifaceted and just as virtuosic rendering that makes a compelling case for this fine one-of-a-kind piece situated between the concerto and suite genres – a work that absolutely has to be included in a complete recording! Although the second overture suite really should be assigned to the ranks of the anonymous, Adolf Hoffmann categorically labeled it as a piece by Telemann in his dissertation on the orchestral suites (1969) and classified it as a “masterpiece” by this composer. The solo violin is highly effectively employed along with a finely developed feeling for tone-color effects, and the movements are ambitiously elaborated in length and form. No matter how plausible the case for Telemann’s authorship may be – these works enable us to participate in a fascinating journey back in time to European music culture around 1720.

In the Baroque it was by no means uncommon for composers to freely transcribe and arrange their own works or works by others for a different instrument. Therefore, any present day attempt of alternative instrumentation should be viewed with respect and curiosity: the result counts. And what result we encounter on this new recording of Flute Concertos by Telemann transcribed for the Pan Flute! By turns dramatic and furious, sweet and beguiling: the pan flute has infinite coloristic qualities to do full justice to these master works. The pan flute in its present form originates from 17th century Rumania, mostly used as a folk music instrument. However the use of the pan flute in “classical” Baroque music is by no means an abomination. The improvisatory character, the organic way of tone production which is regulated by the intensity of the breath of the player suit the Baroque music particularly well! These tracks are all exhilarating performances by master pan flutist Hanspeter Oggier and his Ensemble Fratres.

After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue and Pink collections (a total of 56 reissues), which brought the pearls from the Baroque catalogues of the house labels back into the spotlight, here are fourteen new titles offering a chance to rediscover more Baroque treasures and rarities. Like the last series, this fifth installment also opens up to the Classical (Mozart) or Renaissance (Dufay) repertories - recordings that are an integral part of Alpha's identity and history. This series' reissues are performed by the finest musicians in the field; most of these recordings received one or more awards on their first release. The albums come with proper booklets, including notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from many different backgrounds illustrate the covers of the series with their works: this time the main theme is the color white. The present album features Georg Philipp Telemann's Overture and Concerti pour Darmstadt, performed by Alexis Kossenko, Zefira Valova, and Les Ambassadeurs.

This is the seventh album in the first complete recording of the 72 cantatas from Georg Philipp Telemann's collection Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst, published in Hamburg in 1726 — the first complete set of cantatas for the liturgical year to appear in print. The cantatas are designated for voice, an obbligato instrument (recorder, violin, transverse flute or oboe) and basso continuo, and generally take the form of two da capo arias with an intervening recitative. Although intended for worship, both public and private, Telemann's cantatas are a masterly blend of tunefulness with skilled counterpoint and vocal and instrumental virtuosity. Bergen Barokk was established by Frode Thorsen and Hans Knut Sveen in 1994 in connection with a concert series supported by the city arts department in Bergen and is today one of the leading early-music ensembles in Norway. The group has performed in concerts and radio broadcasts in Europe, Russia and the USA. Its recordings on Simax Classics, BIS, Bergen Digital Studio, LAWO and Toccata Classics include German, English, Italian and French repertoire.

Telemann was among the most admired and prolific of composers and his compositions encompass virtually all genres and instrumentations known in his lifetime. The ‘Six Ouvertures,’ strangely neglected for many years, reveal his inventive and imaginative writing for solo harpsichord. They contain elements that suggest an amalgam of French and Italianate influences, whether ‘ouverture-suite’ or three-movement concerto or sonata. Also evident, in the central movements, is Telemann’s preference for Polish folk music, of whose ‘true barbaric beauty’ he was an ardent admirer. Gaku Nakagawa was born in 1993 in Japan. He began playing piano at the age of four, and in 2012 entered the University of Tokyo to study philosophy. Without ever having a harpsichord lesson, he became the first prize winner of the 27th YAMANASHI, Japan, international competition for early music in 2014. This is his debut recording.

With 3600 works to his credit, Georg Philipp Telemann is rightly regarded as of one of the most prolific composers of all time. This superlative however has brought him less honor than one may have hoped, because with so many works came the suspicion that quality may have been sacrificed in the process, a view that prevailed especially throughout the 19th century. As a result, the objective study of Telemann and his protean work only began in earnest in the late 20th century, resulting in many discoveries and first performances that show the seriousness and depth of the composer's genius. The present CD features a trio of cantatas from the so-called "Engel-Jahrgang" (lit. "Angel cycle" named for the image of an angel that appears on the cover of the printed scores) dating from 1748/49. In these works, Telemann has already begun to explore the Rococo style, which had just begun to take root and demonstrates his compositional skill and originality at every turn. Three festive cantatas ring out in glorious tones: "Der Herr lebet" for the first day of Easter, "Ehr und Dank sey Dir gesungen" for the Feast of St, Michael and "Der Geist giebt Zeugnis" for the Day of Pentecost. The Bach-Chor Siegen, the Hannoversche Hofkapelle, singers Miriam Feuersinger, Franz Vitzthum and Klaus Mertens and director Ulrich St�tzel are in their element with Telemann - having previously released several Telemann albums with h�nssler CLASSIC - and present another installment of enchanting and accomplished performances of rarely heard music from one of the greatest masters of the Baroque.

The players of Holland Baroque continue their PENTATONE journey with Telemann Polonoise. Together with violinist Aisslinn Nosky, they take the listener on a journey to the wild nature and lively folk culture of Poland, viewed through the lens of Georg Philipp Telemann, whose Polish travels left a profound mark on his compositional style. Arranged by the ensemble’s artistic leaders Judith and Tineke Steenbrink, Telemann’s Polish concertos and dances sound brisker than ever before. Holland Baroque is an original and innovative baroque orchestra that approaches baroque repertoire through a fresh and contemporary approach, with a focus on improvisation and collaborations with outstanding artists from different traditions. Telemann Polonoise is their second PENTATONE release, after their well-received Silk Baroque (2019), together with Wu Wei. Aisslin Nosky, one of the most pioneering and adventurous early music violinists of our age, makes her PENTATONE debut.

This is the sixth CD in the first complete recording of the 72 cantatas in Georg Philipp Telemann’s collection Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst, published in Hamburg in 1726 – the first complete set of cantatas for the liturgical year to appear in print. The cantatas are designated for voice, an obbligato instrument (recorder, violin, transverse flute or oboe) and basso continuo, and generally take the form of two da capo arias with an intervening recitative. Telemann’s cantatas are a masterly blend of tunefulness with skilled counterpoint and vocal and instrumental virtuosity.

Elephant House Quartet invites the listener for a stroll through the colourful oeuvre of Telemann — himself a gardening enthusiast — presenting a bouquet of chamber-musical jewels. Telemann’s Garden ranges from excerpts of solo fantasias for violin, flute and harpsichord to a sonata for viola da gamba and basso continuo, a trio sonata for violin, recorder and basso continuo, a suite for violin, flute and basso continuo, as well as one of the quartets Telemann wrote during his Paris sojourns. These pieces together constitute a fascinating portrait of one of the most prolific and successful composers of the Baroque era. Elephant House Quartet is a Baroque ensemble featuring virtuosos on each instrument in wonderful interaction, consisting of recorder player Bolette Roed, violinist Aureliusz Golinski, gambist Reiko Ichise and harpsichordist Allan Rasmussen. Telemann’s Garden marks their PENTATONE debut.

REVIEW:

The Elephant House Quartet use period instruments or modern copies. One cannot fault the quality of the playing. It is exquisite, executed with style and eloquent lyricism. I love the way the passages are shaped with exemplary skill and control. One senses a close connection between the four players, who demonstrate a firm grip on the formal and artistic structure of the works with a sense of total engagement. Calm and meditative in the slow movements, buoyant in the faster movements – these are performances to cherish, with striking unity and intonation of the instruments that make a gorgeous sound. Allan Rasmussen’s harpsichord, a modern copy after Harrass (c. 1710), is one of the finest I have heard.

– MusicWeb International

This album features three dazzling but previously only little-known compositions for royals from Telemann’s immense trove of vocal music. The selections have been chosen from the field of commissioned and occasional compositions written for special occasions such as acts of homage, funerary ceremonies, weddings, birthdays, and inaugurations. Two works from Telemann’s primary creative field, that of church music, round off the program. The three works featured on this recording have in common points of reference to the particular English kings during whose reigns they were written; these monarchs were also in personal union the Prince Electors of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (for short: “Electors of Hanover”). All three works are distinguished by scoring for an ensemble with trumpets as “royal instruments” – sometimes in a majestic function, sometimes in a tonally subdued, mournful function – and with a bass singer as the vocal representative of the monarch. These works brimming with ideas and designed with virtuosity and color are from the master’s late compositional period and, depending on the particular occasion, express gratitude, appreciation, or grief vis-à-vis the British-Hanoverian rulers. Although these feelings certainly first and foremost reflect the stance of those who commissioned them, Telemann’s musical settings lend them universal appeal.

The Musicalisches Lob Gottes in der Gemeine des Herrn may be regarded as the impressive high point of Telemann’s printed annual cycles. The present recording of three cantatas from this annual cycle tends more to chamber musical design. It interprets the compositions as intimate sacred music for which an ensemble with eight members completely suffices in performance respects – something corresponding to the reality in performance practice in most German church music ensembles in the eighteenth century. In view of the intimate interpretation of these cantatas, the intermezzi interspersed in them from the Twelve Fantasies for Viola da Gamba Solo have the effect of a meditative deepening of the religious subject matter. The four fantasies selected are elaborated with fine art and are just as richly arrayed musically as are the church compositions.

Following a critically acclaimed Vivaldi album, recorder player Lorenzo Cavasanti and his partners - grouped under the name Tripla Concordia - turn their attention to Georg Philipp Telemann, with an original programme that goes beyond the usual canon of his recorder sonatas. Among Telemann's hundreds of sonatas, his last publication of solos for melody instrument and basso continuo, the XII Solos a violin ou traversiere, contains music of great expressive depth. These twelve works not only sum up the composer's approach to the solo sonata over several decades, but also reveal his continuing exploration of the genre's possibilities. Yet they have been unfairly overshadowed by several of his earlier sonata collections. This recording by Lorenzo Cavasanti and the members of Tripla Concordia offers a new perspective on the XII Solos by performing four of them with recorder in place of violin or flute. Such flexibility of instrumentation was characteristic of Telemann, who often sanctioned alternative scorings in his publications. Paired with these works is a sonata preserved in a Brussels manuscript and one from the well-known Essercizii musici. The music's significance is explored in booklet notes by Telemann scholar Steven Zohn, author of Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann's instrumental works.