Telemann Recorder Sonatas

Telemann Recorder Sonatas marks the return of recorder player Caroline Eidsten Dahl to the NativeDSD Music store.  On the album, she is joined by Kate Hearne (Baroque Cello) and Christian Kjos (Harpsichord) as they perform the music of Telemann in this new album.  Recorded in DXD by LAWO Classics, it is also available at the NativeDSD Music store in Stereo DSD up to DSD 512.

On this recording with recorder player Caroline Eidsten Dahl, baroque cellist Kate Hearne and harpsichordist Christian Kjos we are presented with Telemann’s complete collection of sonatas for recorder and basso continuo.

Seven of the sonatas are among his best-known, and they have become a part of the standard repertoire for recorder players. In addition, we get to hear two sonatinas whose basso continuo parts were missing until their discovery in the 1990s. The trio performs here some of its absolute favorite sonatas; a musician never tires of playing Telemann!

The motto “Singen ist das Fundament zur Music in allen Dingen“ (the first line of a little poem in Telemann’s letter to Mattheson in 1718) sums up well Telemann’s fundamental principle of composing music that is melodious. Moreover, he liked to sprinkle in some cultivated folklore, especially in his “alla Polacca” melodies. This is clearly reflected in Telemann’s sonatas for recorder — in his fondness for beautiful melodies, for rhythms inspired by Polish traditional music, and for virtuosic runs for both recorder and basso continuo.

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) gained fame over much of Europe during the middle of his own life for his gallant and mixed style. In 1726, learnèd poet Christian Friedrich Weichmann (1698–1770) compared him to the greatest musicians in Venice, Rome, Paris, and London (Poesie der Nieder-Sachsen, part 3) and he was to receive increasing acclaim over the next 10 years. In 1740, influential music writer Johann Mattheson asserted in his Grundlage einer Ehrenpforte that Telemann had even eclipsed the two pioneers of the era, Lully (French style) and Corelli (Italian style).

However, after his death in 1767 Telemann quickly faded into oblivion. With Viennese classical style in full bloom and soon to transform into early Romanticism, Telemann’s body of work was to become passé. The new artistic ideal was that of the sensitive genius. Later Baroque composers who had a penchant for short, gallant phrases, and who even allowed themselves to caricature nations and imitate nature and weather phenomena, no longer conformed to the musical zeitgeist. In fact, most Baroque music was past its use-by date, with only parts of Handel and Bach’s oeuvres remaining sacrosanct.

Advocates of J.S Bach kept him relatively au courant by using the successful tactic of portraying him as a true genius, a scientist – a musical Isaac Newton. The still famous Telemann of 1750 seemed to see it coming when writing an obituary about his newly deceased friend Bach (in sonnet form), looking into the future and predicting that his name would never “go under”.