Telemann: Recorder Suite / Recorder Concertos

Description

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)Suite and Concertos for RecorderNo other composer wrote in his day so specifically for the recorder as the Magdeburg-born Georg Philipp Telemann. His way of composing for this instrument confirms that he himself must have concerned himself intensively with the technical and musical possibilities of the recorder. The high notes demanded of the instrument, for instance the high A and high E in the Concerto in F major, are proof of this, as are the rapid semiquaver repeated notes in the Menuett of the Concerto in C major. Telemann had a knowledge of all instruments and of their special features. An excerpt from his autobiography shows his endeavour to establish the particular qualities of an instrument and explore them: ‘The violin after the organ is tackled the flute, oboe and trumpet too, the gamba follows along in the bass, only with here and there a trill. No, no, it is not enough that the notes just sound that you know only how to take your wares to market. Give each instrument what it can bear, so the player has pleasure and you have enjoyment from it.’ The works here played represent the recorder as a virtuoso solo instrument, largely removed from the limited range of expression assigned to it in the baroque period, such as the pastoral, scenes of love and the subject of death in laments and mourning. The Suite in A minor offers a store of the musical expression of feelings, of joy, love, longing, hope, shame, fear, courage, sadness, despair, hatred and anger, nor the less a compendium of the most important musical national styles of the European baroque. French, Italian and Polish elements are here combined in the ‘mixed taste’ that Johann Joachim Quantz equates with the ‘German taste’: ‘When we know how to choose with proper discrimination what is best in each from the musical tastes of the different peoples, there comes from this a mixed taste, which, without stepping beyond the bounds of modesty, may very well be called the German taste: not only because the Germans discovered it first but also because it was introduced into various districts of Germany many years ago and still flourishes, nor is displeasing in Italy, France or other countries.’ Telemann enriches his concertos and suites particularly with elements of Polish style and structure, with which he could have been familiar since 1705, the start of his stay in Sorau (the modern Z.ary) as Court Kapellmeister in the service of Count Erdmann von Promnitz. Striking examples of this alla polacca style are the Polonaise in the Suite in A minor and the Presto of the Double Concerto. In his autobiography of 1718 he captured this both in prose and in verse: ‘Here there was further acquaintance with Polish music, through proximity, from which I confess that I have found many different good things which later were of service to me in matters both many and s