Telemann - Quatuors Parisiens Vols 2&3 - Holloway, Duftschmid, et al.

Release Date: June 28, 2011 Label: CPO Number of discs: 2 Composer: Telemann Performer: John Holloway cd info/ buy

Review:

This CPO edition presents a complete recording of the 12 Paris Quartets featuring high points in Telemann's chamber music as well as enthralling and imaginative interpretations by top-quality instrumentalists performing with elegance and sophistication.

 

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Telemann - Quatuors Parisiens Vol 1 - Holloway, Duftschmid, et al.

 

Release Date: 03/31/2009 Label: CPO Number of discs: 1 Composer: Telemann Performer: John Holloway  cd info/ buy

Review:

The works that have come to be known as Telemann’s “Paris Quartets” are actually two sets of works not meant by Telemann to be considered as one combined work. In 1730 in Hamburg, Telemann published six quadri (the word “quartet” was not in use in Telemann’s day) for violin, flute, viola da gamba or cello, and basso continuo, consisting of two concertos, two suites, and two sonatas. In 1736–37, these works were reprinted in Paris as Six Quatuors. In 1737, Telemann was able to fulfill a long-held desire of visiting Paris. During his stay, he published six Nouveaux Quatuors, so-called because of the previous printing of his Hamburg quartets. They were written for the same instrumental group as the 1730 publication. In modern times, these two publications were reprinted together as the “Paris Quartets.” This recording, labeled Vol. 1, is presumably the start of a new set of the complete “Paris Quartets.” For this beginning volume, the performers have chosen two works from each publication. The Concerto in D and the Sonata in A are the second and third works of the 1730 publication, while the Quatuors in A Minor and E Minor are the second and sixth works from the later publication. The performers are a very accomplished lot. Most of them have appeared on numerous recordings, individually and occasionally with one or two of their colleagues on this recording, generally receiving high praise from Fanfare’s critics. We are not told if they were brought together for this project or if they occasionally perform together as a group. They sound like an experienced ensemble. Their performances are lively without going to extremes. Rhythms, while not stodgy, are steady. These performers do not think the music requires extremes of tempo or fluctuations in tempo, something indulged in by the Musica ad Rhenum in their complete recording of the “Paris Quartets” for Brilliant. The results show that such extremes are not needed in this music. I look forward to further installments of what will undoubtedly be a distinguished set of the “Paris Quartets.”--Ron Salemi

 

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Telemann - Overture 'La Bourse', Suites - Dombrecht, Il Fondamento

 

Release Date: 07/13/2010 Label: Vanguard Classics Number of discs: 1 Composer: Telemann Performer: Il Fondamento cd info/ buy

Review:

Il Fondamento, the Baroque orchestra founded by oboist Paul Dombrecht more than two decades ago, has been turning out lively recordings of 18th-century music ever since. The present disc (a reissue of a recording from 1996), titled La Bourse after one of the suites, is comparatively modest: just two oboes, bassoon, and strings. A bourse is a stock exchange. Telemann spent nearly a decade of his composing career living in an upper corner of a massive Frankfurt mansion whose ground floor was then occupied by the Frankfurt Bourse. The title La Bourse isn’t actually Telemann’s, having been attached to the piece (TWV 55:B11) by a 20th-century editor, but as musicological conjectures go it’s not that much of a stretch. The last movement is titled “L’Espérance de Mississippi” — presumably the “Mississippi bubble” of 1720, when thousands of investors staked their hopes (unwisely) on French Louisiana. When you consider that the other movements are titled “Interrupted rest,” “War in peacetime,” “The victors vanquished,” and “Solitude in company,” it’s hard to resist the idea that this is Telemann’s portrayal of a stockbroker’s life. All the same, there’s little that you could call tone-painting in this suite. Telemann trying deliberately to imitate something, be it a frog or an old woman, almost never misses. These titles (apart from Le Repos interrompu, which is exactly what it sounds like) seem added after the fact. The other two suites here don’t pretend to illustrate anything but themselves. One (TWV 55:g3) is a sort of expansion of an earlier chamber piece. There are six movements in a row, titled “Aria,” so sharply distinct that apart from the common key you wouldn’t necessarily assume they all belonged to the same piece. The other (TWV 55:C4) is a big (10-movement) suite in as grand a style as can be achieved with so small an ensemble. It’s typical Telemann in the sense that it delivers what was promised, and then throws in a little bonus. You’ve got your dance movements (the canonical allemande, courante, sarabande, plus some extras); but you’ve also got a rambling “Air italien,” an “Entrée,” and a gavotte titled “Les Étudiants gaillards” (roughly, “the lively students”). This last is a hoot. The main gavotte is decorous enough, but the trio section involves oboes in octaves over a bassoon drone, to which Dombrecht has added some most apt percussion. The performances — nimble, suave, witty, and somber by turns — range as widely as the music does, and run in felicitous tandem with it.

 

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