Musica Alta Ripa - Telemann - Concertos and Chamber Music, Vol. 4 (2006)

A true spate of recordings in recent years has illuminated the best qualities of Georg Philipp Telemann's chamber music, which is instrumentally colorful, adept in its combination of styles, and often possessed of sheer imagination and a delightfully cheeky sense of humor. For a great example of the kind of thing Telemann does all the time that Bach would rarely if ever do, hear the Entrée from the Ouverture for oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, and continuo in E major, TWV 55:E2 (track 6), where the music unexpectedly shifts into triple meter and back again. This recording by the Hanover, Germany-based group Musica Alta Ripa ("Alta Ripa" means high bank in English and "honovere" in Middle High German) catches these virtues of Telemann's music even if it has a few problems. The pieces heard here are for combinations of from one to five instruments, plus continuo, and there isn't a weak soloist in the bunch. All the players attack Telemann's music with gusto -- which is absolutely essential in bringing it to life -- and they maintain a high level of tension in the Concerto in A minor for recorder, violin, oboe, and continuo, with its intricately intertwined lines for the three lead instruments (the "concertos" here are really for overgrown trio sonata ensembles). The group is certainly capable of realizing Telemann's unusual instrumental textures, but it is here that the musicians run into trouble. The first three works on the album are played with a very large continuo group consisting of cello, double bass, theorbo or Baroque guitar, and harpsichord. This group produces a booming sound that does help give the music its proper energy but tends to drown out the melody lines. Pedantic booklet notes neither indicate why these continuo forces were used, nor answer obvious questions about the music (what in the world are the "Rondeau Hanaquoise" and "Harlequinade" movements of the Ouverture for oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, and continuo in E major, TWV 55:E2?). This is not your father's dull old Telemann, but it also faces plenty of competition these days from discs that sound more consistently good.