Scherzando

Telemann: VI Ouvertüren nebst zween Folgesätzen
Anke Dennert harpsichord
64:09
Genuin GEN 16411

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his recording presents a close and highly successful match of music and instrument. Telemann’s six overtures were published in Nuremberg 1745 following the composer’s visit to Paris a few years earlier. The title describes them as ‘overtures followed by two accompanying movements in French, Polish or otherwise trifling manner, and in Italian style’. They combine features of both the French and Italian structures of the time. The music represents the composer at his most inventive, matching some contrapuntal ingenuity with brilliant passagework in the overtures, writing affective middle movements (each labelled ‘scherzando’ as well as with a tempo or mood indication like ‘largo’ or ‘dolce’ – hence the title of the CD) and sparkling allegros or vivaces to finish. Dennert plays on the historic two-manual 1728 harpsichord by the Hamburg-based Christian Zell, preserved in the city’s Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe. She plays with confidence and style, bringing out both the extrovert and more inward-looking features of the music. The beautifully mellow tone of the harpsichord is excellently recorded in quite a resonant acoustic which emphasis the public nature of Telemann’s music here. I enjoyed this recording very much.

Noel O’Regan