Concentus musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Telemann: Darmstadt Overtures (2009)

Telemann's connection with Darmstadt is typical of a composer who cast his net widely on the path to becoming Germany's most acclaimed composer. Appointed to his Frankfurt post in 1712 Telemann was shrewd enough to realize that to 'get on' he needed to write music for the best. In instrumental terms, he was lucky enough to be based less than 20 miles from the Darmstadt court of Ernst Ludwig VII, a music-loving nobleman who had at his disposal a fine orchestra of musicians, many recruited from Paris, trained by the court Kapellmeister, Johann Christoph Graupner (known largely through his turning down the cantorate at St Thomas's Leipzig before Bach was reluctantly found to be an acceptable choice). Telemann and Graupner obviously came to some understanding since the former was given an entree to Darmstadt's musicians. The result is a corpus of fine suites, housed in the Hochschulbibliothek in Darmstadt, which majestically represents the mature German 'angle' on the adopted French style which also affected Bach so deeply.
These reissues of six suites were recorded in 1978, with the exception of the two final suites which were made 12 years earlier with the recorder player, Frans Bruggen. Arguably, Harnoncourt is nowhere more at home than in the aesthetic world of this music. The Overtures of the ravishing G minor Suite and the bolder C major work show him to be a master of noble gesture and purposeful articulation. Compared with Trevor Pinnock's highly praised accounts of these two works, the current performances are less even in terms of orchestral exactitude and pure luxuriance of texture (relish the delectable ''Sommeille'' from the C major Suite where Pinnock is peerless) but there is a robust, biting energy about Harnoncourt which is infectious, often, as in the Bouree en trompette of the same work, one imagines that the exaggerated contrasts and deliberate accentuations would appear mannered if executed by anyone other than Harnoncourt. How fine the line is between the real thing and something which sounds plainly manufactured.
The D minor, D major and F minor Suites stand alone in the catalogue. The F minor is a particularly striking work (despite a slight wavering pitch in the opening strains) in which Telemann finds a fluency and originality of expression to distinguish his choice of key, much in the same way as he does in the F minor Oboe Concerto which, not surprisingly for the period, projects a similar Affekt. Throughout, but most notably here, Harnoncourt conjures up subtle rhythmic deviations, each paragraph flexibly shaped but still controlled and naturally breathed. If pliancy of this kind is an answer to making sense of baroque phrasing, then texture speaks volumes too: Telemann's oboe writing in particular, and its place within a string body is exceptionally skilled, his scoring of three oboes is especially effective and the oboists Jurg Schaeftlein, David Reichenberg and Paul Hailperin play with irresistible esprit. The D major Suite is full of instances where their performances brim with personality, contributing greatly to that fruity and ever so musty nose which characterizes Concentus Musicus on vintage form. Bruggen's performance of the A minor Suite is temperate and unhurried, if a little straight compared with a number of his competitors. The recorded sound is full of presence however. To sum up: with Harnoncourt one can imagine few exponents better suited to this colourful repertoire. Pinnock's two recent recordings of suites are obligatory for baroque collectors generally but this release is full of many unique delights and it contains three works not otherwise available in the catalogue. Strongly recommended.'