Telemann Complete Orchestral Suites, vol. 2

Each movement of each suite is both engaging and inventive, and none of the music overstays its welcome. One can give individual praise to violinists Sergey and Pavel Filchenko in the first G-Minor Suite (TWV 55:g8), oboists Philippe Nodel and Svetlana Usacheva and bassoonist Mikhail Shilenkov in the B?-Suite (TWV 55:B11), violinist Dmitry Lepekhov in the A-Major Suite, flautist Olga Ivusheykova in the E Minor, violinist Marina Katazhnova in the second G Minor, and Renée Allen and Fyodor Yarovoy on natural horns in the F Major.

One cannot praise the wonderful camaraderie one hears from this orchestra highly enough. Each member is obviously a virtuoso, yet each emerges from the ensemble for his/her solo turns and then blends right back in. This group almost breathes together: Listen to their subtlety and intelligence in the use of nuances. Every note of each suite sounds as if it had been studiously assessed as to the exact weight and pressure to exert within each phrase, but the end result is playing that has a spontaneous joie-de-vivre that is anything but studied.

Listen, particularly, to the light passages within the Allegro s, where only two or three instruments are playing, and the way Pratum Integrum almost makes the music float. This is, quite simply, extraordinary early-music playing. The orchestra raises these suites up to the level of Handel’s and Rameau’s best orchestral music. Very highly recommended.