Telemann - Les Nations - Ouvertures & Oboe Concerti

As few other composers, Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 - 1767) successfully drew on a multitude of national styles and prevailing genres in creating his enormous body of work. Les Nations is perhaps the best known of these multi-national assemblages. Yet in this album we additional have his Overture 'Völker' in which he dances through movements titled Les Turcs, Les Suisses, Les Moscovites, Les Portugais. Telemann was indeed the cosmopolitan, multi-cultured composer...

The performances here a well-sprung—alert, spritely, full of spirit, full of wry sly humor that so well aligns with this master from 250 years ago. Neither the Bach Concentus nor the oboe soloist, Vinciane Baudhuin, strive for flashy frills, excess vibrato, or stretched out phrasing. No, this is a pretty straight forward performance that lets us hear Telemann, not the misplaced efforts of the performers. And, for that, I applaud everyone involved.

This Bert van der Wolf recording is a thing of grace and beauty. As always, Bert has found a beautiful natural acoustic recording venue in the Concertgebouw deSingel, Antwerpen, Belgium. His combination of extremely detailed and natural sounding instrumental sound and the breath and airiness of the recording venue makes this recording sound truly like real instruments performing in a real space. There is three dimensionality to the sound of the instruments, there is wonderfully natural timbre, there is just the right balance of direct and reflected sound, and there is the wonderful air of a great music performance venue.