Telemann’s twelve “Methodic Sonatas” come from that happy time when there was no functional difference between pedagogical and art music. Much of Bach’s keyboard output, such as the Inventions and Sinfonias and The Well-Tempered Clavier, falls into the same category. The “method” that Telemann speaks of refers not just to the variety of movement forms found within these four and five-part sonatas, but also to the ornamentation, some of which Telemann writes out in full.

Composed for either flute or violin solo, plus continuo, these performances offer an even more varied selection of instruments including flute, recorder, oboe, and violin. The continuo contingent couldn’t be more adept, and includes Anner Bylsma and Wouter Möller on cello, as well as harpsichordists Bob van Asperen and Gustav Leonhardt. Two of the slow movements are headed “ondeggiando” (“waving”), a colorful term that in modern times has been adopted by the HIP movement to mean “baroque bow vibrato,” but ironically it didn’t mean that at all in the baroque period, when the usual word for vibrato of any kind was “tremolo.” Instead, it referred to music with a gentle, pastoral quality, and later in the 19th century to a particular “waving” bowing technique. Go figure.

Telemann wrote so much music that it’s very difficult for collectors to know where to start. Much of his output is “typical” rather than great, but these were pieces over which he took particular care, both in the composition as well as overseeing their publication. You won’t find them better played on disc, or imbued with such variety and color in the selection of solo instruments. Flutist Frans Brüggen and oboist Han de Vries form the woodwind contingent, while Boston Museum Trio violinist Daniel Stepner plays an impressive baroque violin. This set, assuming you can still find it, ought to form the cornerstone of any serious Telemann collection.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com