Recordings of Telemann

[MickyD]

I haven't listened to this piece for a while, but the last recording I get to know well was Zefiro, where the Handel is split into two with the Telemann in between, a very nice programme. I know everyone is mad about Niquet, but it doesn't do much for me, I prefer it as an "indoor" piece to something blasting across the Thames! The first recording I heard was Wenzinger, a very early semi-HIPP effort, which I have fond memories of, though if I heard it now I probably wouldn't like it any more.

If I remember correctly, Robert King did the same programme with the Telemann for Hyperion.

[Goon525]

But the trouble is, many Telemann suites or CPE symphonies only exist in two or three versions, not enough to sustain a BaL. Jayne, I don’t think your personal ennui with this work should disqualify it from being considered once every twenty years or so.

[MickyD]

But the trouble is, many Telemann suites or CPE symphonies only exist in two or three versions, not enough to sustain a BaL. Jayne, I don’t think your personal ennui with this work should disqualify it from being considered once every twenty years or so.

Well said.

[Wolfram]

But the trouble is, many Telemann suites or CPE symphonies only exist in two or three versions, not enough to sustain a BaL. Jayne, I don’t think your personal ennui with this work should disqualify it from being considered once every twenty years or so.

BaL featured surveys of CPE Bach in 1996 and 2005 and Telemann in 2014?, I think, in addition to the Ebb und Fluth already mentioned, so neither can be said to have been entirely ignored. I think there may be enough recordings of the unaccompanied violin suites now for them to warrant a BaL in their own right. And what about the Tafelmusik?

[MickyD]

BaL featured surveys of CPE Bach in 1996 and 2005 and Telemann in 2014?, I think, in addition to the Ebb und Fluth already mentioned, so neither can be said to have been entirely ignored. I think there may be enough recordings of the unaccompanied violin suites now for them to warrant a BaL in their own right. And what about the Tafelmusik?

Yes, the Tafelmusik is an excellent idea, there are a handful of good recordings. I have both the Goebel and Harnoncourt but would be hard pressed to choose just one - both are superb in their own way.

[Wolfram]

Yes, the Tafelmusik is an excellent idea, there are a handful of good recordings. I have both the Goebel and Harnoncourt but would be hard pressed to choose just one - both are superb in their own way.

Konrad Hunteler on MDG is well worth a listen too in Tafelmusik - if it’s still available. I expect Rachel Podger would the 10/1 on favourite to win the unaccompanied violin stakes - and quite rightly too. My we’ve drifted a long way down stream from Handel.

[jayne lee wilson]

But the trouble is, many Telemann suites or CPE symphonies only exist in two or three versions, not enough to sustain a BaL. Jayne, I don’t think your personal ennui with this work should disqualify it from being considered once every twenty years or so.

There are at least 6 recordings each of the CPE Bach Hamburg and Berlin Symphonies and many selections, mostly of high quality, in a wide range of instrumental vintages; just the right amount for a thorough BaL appraisal really, compared to the often vast field of the usual subjects. There was a burgeoning of interest and recordings across the 2014 Tercentenary (when I became an obsessive fan), but such composers often fall off the radar compared to Handel, Vivaldi, and so on…

With Telemann Suites I was thinking of the survey-style BaL which we used to see more frequently. A Baroque Specialist’s Guide through a bewilderingly fecund creative journey would be so useful and enjoyable.

I’d just like to see the knowledge and insight on offer around here taking us down some of The Roads Less Travelled….but I guess its time to get back in, or on, (or for me, out of) the water….

[Goon525]

Just to make it clear, I’ve no problem at all with Telemann and CPE being featured in Record Review, I’d just rather it wasn’t in BaL. There are two hours of non-BaL in every episode, and I can’t see why a survey shouldn’t feature in some of that other time. I do prefer BaL when it’s a single work, with one or more choices made.

[jayne lee wilson]

Just to make it clear, I’ve no problem at all with Telemann and CPE being featured in Record Review, I’d just rather it wasn’t in BaL. There are two hours of non-BaL in every episode, and I can’t see why a survey shouldn’t feature in some of that other time. I do prefer BaL when it’s a single work, with one or more choices made.

The BaL Eagle's-Eye features on Dutilleux and Gubaidulina worked very well, and such surveys would probably take up too much time from the program's usual other segments.

*****

Telemann composed over 100 Suites. If I were commissioning a Baroqueomane to cover Telemann, I'd say - please could you map out a Baedeker to TWV55? Most of the Suites I've heard from this extensive grouping sound wonderfully catchy and very original in their tone-painting, their harmony, the musical shapes they throw.
Harnoncourt's selection with the CMW (originally on Das Alte Werk) are among his best records; the show his stylistic progression from a more Romantic mid-1960s performance practice, strings especially, to the sharply articulated, pared-back astringency of a decade or so later.
The AAMB's series on HM included the marvellous TWV55 "Alster" (with its very Grand Overture, and then... Frogs, Crows and Swans), "La Musette" and "La Chasse" in the late-1990s, which I discovered thanks to Gramophone and fell in love with at first listen; all extraordinary and often LOL witty and bizarre.
Many of these are gathered into big boxsets now; even harder to navigate....!

But then in the extensive Pratum Interregnum edition (Caro Mitis SACDs), some others were rather less memorable - if still strikingly distinctive stylistically. CPO have a continuing edition of Suites as well.

If only Lionel Salter were still around, I bet he could do it....
I recall a review in which he took a writer to task for mentioning "Telemann's Suite in D Minor"....
"But which Suite in D Minor?" Salter asked..."there are at least six"....

[RichardB]

Yes, the Tafelmusik is an excellent idea, there are a handful of good recordings. I have both the Goebel and Harnoncourt but would be hard pressed to choose just one - both are superb in their own way.

Indeed. Some years ago I met the Australian horn player Andrew Joy, who plays on both recordings, and he said the same thing. Although I personally have a preference for Goebel. I would say there are quite enough recordings of the Tafelmusik to have a BaL survey - to me this makes more sense than having a relatively brief programme which is supposed to cover dozens of recordings, which I'm sure the presenter(s) won't have listened to all of.

The CPO label and especially Michael Schneider/La Stagione have done a valuable job in releasing what must by now be almost all of Telemann's concertos, and large amounts of vocal music also. I've listened to most of these releases and I would have to say with the best will in the world that some pieces are definitely "keepers" while others aren't. Tafelmusik on the other hand was obviously put together to showcase the best he could come up with, and I don't think there's a dull movement in the entire cycle (Handel clearly agreed, from the number of snippets of it that turn up in his own work).

[MickyD]

Yes, I really must start collecting that CPO series, although where to begin? And so many discs is heavy on the wallet!

Here are two of my all-time favourite Telemann concerto discs:



It might be rather too smooth for some tastes, in which case, here is the other one with a much earthier feel about it:

[RichardB]

Both are classic recordings in my opinion. Regarding the CPO series: in general the wind concertos are more interesting than the series of "Grand Concertos" with one exception, volume 5 of the latter series which contains the very striking but not often recorded Violin Concerto (actually a Suite with solo violin and a relatively large orchestra) in F (TWV51:F4) which some might remember from a Jaap Schröder record from the 1970s (and still worth hearing).

[Pulcinella]

Apart from a BBC MM CD (Tafelmusik playing the Suite in B flat 'La Bourse' together with JSB's Orchestral Suites 1 and 3; a programme that might appeal to jlw), I have a 4CD Archiv set of Der getreue Music-Meister, under the direction of Josef Ulsamer, and a Naxos (Capella Istropolitano/Edlinger) compilation that includes the Viola concerto.

[richardfinegold]

Yes, I really must start collecting that CPO series, although where to begin? And so many discs is heavy on the wallet!

Here are two of my all-time favourite Telemann concerto discs:



It might be rather too smooth for some tastes, in which case, here is the other one with a much earthier feel about it:

Start streaming, which is easier on the wallet, or if you wait long enough cpo will probably issues some type of box at a reduced rate

[Wolfram]

I listened to the first 6 of the Fantasies for Solo Violin last night and they really are top draw stuff; I suppose they have always suffered from comparison to Bach, but taken on their own terms they are excellent pieces in their own right. And a quick look on Presto reveals a substantial list of recordings, including some quite recent releases. So from both criteria i.e. number of available recordings and the quality of the pieces themselves, the Fantasies could easily justify a BaL to themselves.