Let’s be clear: the wind ensemble of Telemann’s time was vastly different than the ones we have today. Clarinets, metal flutes, valved brass instruments, and percussion were later additions to the ensemble. The lineup of L’Orfeo Bläserensemble is one Telemann was familiar with: two oboe d’amore, two F horns, and bassoon. Lute and cembalo provide […]
Georg Philipp Telemann
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalChristmas Week 1
This is the second year the #ClassicsaDay team went with a Classical Christmas theme. And that’s fine. If you think about it, composers have been writing works for the season as long as there’s been notation to preserve them. For my contributions, I tried to avoid the obvious choices. In the process, I discovered some […]
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Das neugeborne Kindelein – Baroque Cantatas for the Season
This release presents Christmas cantatas from three German Baroque masters: Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Sebastian Bach. All three wrote cantatas for each Sunday of the Liturgical calendar. Buxtehude was of the generation before Telemann and Bach and was a model to the younger composers. His cantata Das neugeborne Kindelein opens the program. It’s […]
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Telemann Christmas Oratorios – stellar performances from the Kölner Akademie
For Telemann, 1730-31 was the “year of oratorios.” Given the rich musical resources of Hamburg, he wrote a series of oratorios for the liturgical year. Michael Alexander Willens and the Kölner Akademie perform three of these recently rediscovered works, all centered around Christmas. The Baroque oratorio was closely related to opera, and Telemann wrote accordingly. The […]
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Baroque Wind Quartets – Come for the Telemann, stay for the Molter
This release brings together music by two Kapellmeisters of Johann Wilhelm of Saxe-Eisenach. Georg Philip Telemann held the post first in 1709 and was succeeded by Johann Melchior Molter. The works presented on this release provide an interesting contrast in style between the two. The release features three of Telemann’s 1752 “Paris” quartets. These are […]
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Alec Frank-Gemmill Shows Merit of Horn Concertos Before Mozart
Alec Frank-Gemmill is making a point with this recording. For many horn soloists, Mozart’s concertos are the earliest works in their repertoire. Frank-Gemmill contends that there was plenty of good material that predated them. Frank-Gemmill opens with a 1740 concerto by Christoph Förster. Although primarily an organist, Förster wrote about 50 concertos. He was also […]
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Neumeyer Consort New Take on Telemann
The Neumeyer Consort perform some of Telemann’s most colorful ouverture-suites — and sound like they had a lot of fun in the process. Percussion is heard extensively in the Ouverture-Suite “La Bizarre” — as it is in all the suites. It’s not something one normally hears in baroque music, and I found it quite refreshing. […]
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Telemann: Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott
This release features five cantatas that Georg Philipp Telemann wrote for Reformation Sunday (more or less). October 31 wasn’t officially fixed as Reformation Day until the 19th century. Nevertheless, as early as 1617 many German states were using the first Sunday after October 31st to commemorate Luther’s establishment of the protestant church. Whether celebrating Reformation […]
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Telemann Double Concerti Given New Life by Rebel
I always forget about Telemann. Unlike his contemporaries Bach and Handel, he didn’t write anything that became a breakout hit, like the “Air on a G String,” or “Water Music.” But his music was all of a very high quality, full of inventiveness and skill — as Rebel reminded me with this new recording of […]