Composer: Georg Philipp Telemann
Orchestra: Collegium Musicum 90
Conductor: Simon Standage
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN0700
Release: 2003
Size: 1.25 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Overture (Suite) in G major, TWV 55: G7
01. I. [Ouverture]
02. II. Gavotte
03. III. Menuet [I] – Menuet II
04. IV. Chaconne
05. V. Gig
Overture (Suite) TWV 55:G10 in G major for strings & b.c. ‘Burlesque de Don Quixotte’
06. I. Ouverture
07. II. Le Reveil de Quixotte
08. III. Son Attaque des moulins a vent
09. IV. Ses Soupirs amoureux apres la princesse Dulcinee
10. V. Sance Panche berne
11. VI. Le Galope de Rosinante
12. VII. Celui d’ane de Sanche
13. VIII. Le Couche de Quixotte
Overture (Suite) TWV 55:h1 in B minor for 2 violins, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, strings & b.c.
14. I. Ouverture: [Gravement] – Lentement
15. II. Courante
16. III. Air en rondeaux
17. IV. Menuet
18. V. Chaconne
19. VI. Gavotte I – Gavotte II: Trio
20. VII. Menuet I – Menuet II
Concerto TWV 53:D4 in D major for 2 violins, bassoon, strings & b.c.
21. I. Andante
22. II. [Allegro]
23. III. Adagio
24. IV. Allegro assai
Telemann is never more irresistible than when he’s in light-hearted pictorial mode, and both these new releases feature one of the most entertainingly evocative of all his overture-suites for strings, the Burlesque de Quixote. Taking episodes from the Cervantes novel as its inspiration, it provides us with a memorable sequence of cameos, from the deluded Don tilting at windmills and sighing with love, to Sancho Panza tossed high in a blanket, to portrayals of the pair’s respective steeds. Telemann achieves all this with such humour and descriptive precision that, when you hear it, you’ll surely laugh in delighted recognition.
What a good film composer he would have been! Both performances strike an appropriate tongue-in-cheek attitude. Northern Chamber Orchestra show good style and a pleasingly light and clear texture, unclouded by excessive vibrato or over-egged string tone. Only at the bass end does the sound occasionally become a little thick, but this is really quibbling when what we actually have is a good demonstration of how to perform Baroque music on modern strings. It still makes quite a contrast with Collegium Musicum 90, however, whose period instruments, recorded more intimately, sound slighter and sparkier.
Having already recorded so much of Telemann’s music, they sound more at home and have that extra ounce of freedom to enjoy themselves.
The couplings of the Chandos disc are more interesting. For all that the NCO offer another attractive string suite, La Lyra, containing a typically realistic and beguiling hurdy-gurdy impersonation, the D major Overture isn’t especially memorable; CM90 have found more colourful stuff in the strikingly French-accented G major Overture and a thoroughly charming Concerto for two violins, bassoon and strings. A pair of bassoons also makes a delightful appearance in the second Minuet of the Overture in B minor.