Georg Philipp Telemann was born in Magdeburg, the son
of a Lutheran deacon who died in 1685, leaving the
mother to raise their three children alone. The youth
showed remarkable talent in music, but was temporarily
discouraged in his chosen pursuit by Puritan Lutherans,
who told Telemann's mother that he would turn out no
better than "a clown, a tightrope walker or a
marmot-trainer." In opposition to his mother's wishes,
Telemann continued to study in secrecy until she
relented, allowing him to t...(+)
Georg Philipp Telemann was born in Magdeburg, the son
of a Lutheran deacon who died in 1685, leaving the
mother to raise their three children alone. The youth
showed remarkable talent in music, but was temporarily
discouraged in his chosen pursuit by Puritan Lutherans,
who told Telemann's mother that he would turn out no
better than "a clown, a tightrope walker or a
marmot-trainer." In opposition to his mother's wishes,
Telemann continued to study in secrecy until she
relented, allowing him to train under the highly
respected Kantor Benedict Christiani, at the Old City
School. Outside of some early lessons in reading
tablature, Telemann was self-taught and was capable of
playing the flute, violin, viola da gamba, oboe,
trombone, double bass, and several keyboard
instruments. Telemann began to write music from
childhood, producing an opera, Sigismundus, by age
12.
This little disc of Telemann concertos from Dutch
director Jaap ter Linden and a collection of French
Canadian early music specialists should be enjoyable
for anybody. From the vast field of Telemann concertos
ter Linden extracts a group that naturally flow from
one to another and illuminate each other. There is
virtuosic writing, as in the Concerto for recorder,
string orchestra, and continuo in F major, TWV 51: F1,
in both the Allegro second movement and, less
typically, the final pair of minuets. The only
complaint about the booklet is that it does not
definitively indicate which of the soloists is playing
in which piece; this concerto presumably features
Matthias Maute, who devised the cadenza. There are
technically simpler pieces in which the concerto grosso
format is wittily extended or French and Italian styles
are inventively mixed. The highlight is saved for the
end: the Concerto for flute, recorder, string
orchestra, and continuo in E minor, TWV 52: c1, offers
a brillliant treatment of the contrast between these
two closely related instruments and closes with a
fabulous romp through Polish folk rhythms at Presto
speed. The entire ensemble crisply hangs together in
the fast movements, and the degree of transparency ter
Linden achieves with the texture is impressive. There's
an elusive sense of fun in Telemann that is essential
to an enjoyable performance, and it's present here,
even if somewhat diminished by rather brittle church
sound. On the whole, another successful release from
the early-music.com label, which despite its name seems
to have been mostly oriented toward physical product so
far.
PARTITION