Akademie fur Alte Musik Archive

TELEMANN: A Companion – Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin – Harmonia Mundi 

by Audiophile Audition | Aug 27, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

TELEMANN: A Companion (7CDS) – Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin – Harmonia Mundi 2908781, 8 hours 39:06, (9/8/17) ****½ : A grand survey of the prolific and many-voiced genius of the 18th century Baroque with two large scale choral works at center. For the 350th anniversary of Telemann’s death, Harmonia Mundi has arranged a handsome bouquet of recordings from its own catalog and added a substantial book which documents the composer’s long and fruitful life, calling the whole production A Telemann Companion. The diligent musicologists of this label have set an absolute standard in their critical introductions to music, and its companion essay (with English and French translations) makes for rewarding education in music history. It would not be easy to select a sample of a composer whose output is numbered at 6000 compositions, surpassing the combined works of Bach and Handel. Yet HM has kept the task manageable by selecting from recent releases which cover the main genres of 18th-century music: opera, sacred music, the concerto and the orchestral suite. Conspicuously missing are the solo works and the trio sonata. Telemann’s fanatical musical inventiveness extended across the entire range of the music of his time. His various employments brought […]