Telemann Edition, Vol.1

Online purchase or streaming (Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal, Google Play): Physical Purchase: Social media: Facebook: Instagram: Spotify: Spotify Playlists: New Classical Releases: The Best of Bach: Most Popular Piano Music: Beautiful classical Melodies: Composer: Georg Philipp Telemann Artists: various About this Album: Born in 1681, Georg Philip Telemann would inevitably suffer from comparisons with one of the towering figures of western Classical music, born just four years later: Johann Sebastian Bach. Although after his death Telemann may have been constantly cast into the Leipzig composer’s shadow, during his lifetime he was exalted as Bach’s equal and was considered one of the greatest German composers of the early 18th century. Certainly, the size of his output compares very favourably with Bach’s; Telemann was also a highly productive composer, writing over 3,000 works during his lifetime (although not all have survived). Despite his popularity falling away in the 19th century, today Telemann is almost as highly regarded as he was in his own lifetime – the large number of new recordings on this edition pays tribute to the flurry of interest that has grown around the composer Telemann over the past 30 years. After starting his career in Leipzig, Telemann became Kapellmeister in Sorau (now Żary in Poland), where by his own estimation he wrote over 200 overtures, imbued with the Polish and French influences of the court that surrounded him. The cornerstone of his output, many of these diverse overtures make up a large part of this disc. Telemann then moved first to Eisenach, in central Germany, followed by Frankfurt, his fame steadily increasing along with his output. Among his new compositions were church cantatas, psalms and other sacred works, as well as instrumental music; he became known for his concertos in the French style, which he valued above the Italian style that was more popular at the time. It was in Frankfurt that he began to write concertos for various different instruments, many of which are to be found in this edition.