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Tales of Telemann

Eighteenth century composer Georg Phillip Telemann may be best known for his orchestral suites and sacred cantatas, and as a professional rival of J.S. Bach.  But he definitely had a lighter side. This week on Harmonia we explore Telemann the story teller, with programmatic and character pieces that were written strictly to make the audience giggle.

Telemann composed a three-act comic intermezzo in 1725, to be slotted between acts of a more serious opera. "Pimpinone," or The Unequal Marriage, involves only two characters: the rich old employer Pimpinone and the crafty but penniless young servant Vespetta. John Ostendorf and Julianne Baird perform the roles of Pimpinone and Vespetta, accompanied by the Baroque Orchestra of St. Luke's, on the Newport Classics release of Telemann's comic opera.

An unusual choice of subject matter for a Baroque suite is the metaphorical 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels by Johnathan Swift. Inspired by Swift's fabulous stories of tiny people and giants, floating islands and talking horses, Telemann published a musical interpretation in the magazine Der getreue Music-Meister just a few years after the novel's appearance. Violinists Andrew Manze and Caroline Balding perform "The Gulliver Suite" on the Harmonia Mundi release entitled Telemann: 12 Fantasias for Violin Solo, Gulliver Suite for Two Violins.

Chamber music, especially when written for his friends, seems to have been a favorite genre of Telemann's. He wrote stacks of playful, beautifully-crafted music for everyone from students to professionals to play in the parlor or the public concert. L'Ensemble Portique, featuring Lisette Kielson and Patrick O'Malley, performs on the collection of chamber music entitled Telemann Canons and Duos.

Crickets have often been cast in folktales as musicians, usually as violinists. Telemann's "Cricket Symphony" features imitation of crickets both small and unexpectedly large, in the double bass section. Baroque ensemble Apollo's Fire perform on the Koch Classics release, Don Quixote: Concerto and Suites by Telemann.

"Kligende Geographie" or "Sounding Geography" is one of several compositions in which Telemann painted musical pictures of what he thought were the sounds of exotic foreign lands, including movements named for just about every part of the globe, including North America. He also wrote of exotic escapades of the sea, painting for us the frolicking naiades, the playful tritone (perhaps referring as well to Neptune's trident), and the storming god of the winds in the overture in C major subtitled "Hamburg Ebb and Flow." Musica Antiqua Köln performs this and other concerti on the Archiv release entitled Telemann: Water Music.

In his Don Quixote suite, Telemann chose some of the best-known vignettes from the 17th century novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Apollo's Fire performs on the CD release, Don Quixote: Concerto and Suites by Telemann.

And so we gallop into the sunset of another edition of Harmonia, inspired by the Don of ill-fated imagination and his trusty sidekick, Sancho Panza.  Listen to Ensemble Vigo perform Telemann's take on Don Quixote:

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