Telemann: The Six Paris Quartets | Georg Philipp Telemann, Sonnerie

Telemann: The Six Paris Quartets | Georg Philipp Telemann, Sonnerie | A constant companion

classical music:

Telemann: The Six ...

	Telemann: The Six Paris Quartets Georg Philipp Telemann, Sonnerie Virgin Veritas, 2000 average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Reassessment

Having heard so many mediocre performances of Telemann, I'd come to think of him as the most over-rated rediscovered genius of early music. In fact, I've been shunning concerts and new CDs of his work for years, and I've laughed smugly at the standard musicologist's tale of how Telemann was chosen for a prestigious musical position over Bach. Listening this recording of Ensemble Sonnerie, I find that the laugh is on me. Oh, not entirely; the six "Paris" quartets for flute, strings and harpsichord are vivacious and inventive, and structurally brilliant, but far from profound. Though all six quartets are presented together here, it would do them a great disservice to listen to them in a row, something comparable to playing six rounds of miniature golf with the same 10-year-old partner. Still, there's no denying that for galante music, Telemann is masterful, especially when performed by musicians who know and feel his temperament. Sonnerie features exactly such historically informed musicians, led by violinist Monica Huggett, whose fiddling is always both restrained and emotive. Listening to their spirited ensemble, I can at least imagine how some audiences of the 18th C might have been more charmed by Georg Philipp than by Johann Sebastain.

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A constant companion

We purchased this CD a little while back. The enjoyment is has afforded us since then has made it a constant companion. It is always handy, and often playing in the evenings.

Attracting music

Telemann was a whole musican, to compose multi kinds of musics, ex sacred, operas, and instrumental musics. I heared some and find instrumental music are excellent better. Ex this disc six paris quartets,we could find the mature composition of flute in it. Besides, relaxed and happiess music often are found in it. It let me understand why Telemann was a great musician, so I recommand it.

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Delightful

These quarters are the version that Telemann published in 1738 in Paris, played with modern sparkle on traditional instruments. While they are quartets in the sense that there are four instruments, the harpsicord is just a baso continuo, and the structure and the character of the works are nothing like the classical quartets that were soon to be developed. Rather, they are more in the nature of dance suites with the flute usually particularly prominent while the contrapuntal writing is nothing like as complex as that found in Bach's suites. However, taken on their own terms, these are very pleasing works, truly easy listening if not very demanding. The artists, especially Wilbert Hazelzet on flute and Monica Huggett on violin are splendid, and listening to them is pure joy.

Listening to all six quartets non-stop can get a bit tedious, unless they are being used as background music (for which they are very suitable) but that is easily fixed by only listening to a few at a time. The accompanying notes in English, German and French are not particularly informative, and have the oddity that the French notes are not the same as the English and German ones. The French ones contain the nugget of trivia that one of the subscribers to the edition of the quartets on which these performances are based was J.S. Bach.

Overall, this is a spendid set -- and very good value.

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I might be giving it 4 stars, but buy it anyway!

This is a very good pair of CDs, probably very faithful to the intent of the composer, and extremely well played except... The quartet goes into a bit of a funk during Quartet Four and most of Five. For example, Movement 1 of quartet 5 is titled "Vivement": "Lively". It is played, however, barely faster than the "Modere" movements, and without any more life.

By the time they get to the second "Modere" movement of Quartet 5, and especially the "Pas Vite" (movement 5) though, they're back in gear. I think that these two Quartets must have been played at the end of a long day, or a long week. Or maybe it's just that any team has a hard time being completely "on" 100% of the time.

But that barely distracts from an otherwise superbly played CD, with the purest flute/recorder sound I've heard in a long time, played with wonderful feeling except for the cuts I mentioned. The last two movements of the Sixth Quartet are some of the most beautiful and inspiring pieces I've heard in a while. And this CD is a tremendous bargain to boot!

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