 De la même génération que les grands «baroques», Bach, Vivaldi et Haendel, Telemann fût considéré de façon un peu exagérée comme le grand homme de son époque. Il n’en reste pas moins le compositeur le plus fertile, sans doute de tous les temps, avec quelques six mille œuvres répertoriées. On rétorquera que quantité ne fait pas qualité et certains critiques l’ont surnommé le «Haendel au petit pied»! Comme Vivaldi, d’abord très honoré, il tomba dans l’oubli à la fin de sa vie. Cosmopolite, sa musique subit des influences polonaises, italiennes et surtout françaises. Bien que tout ne soit pas d’égale valeur dans ses œuvres, il y des petites merveilles chez Telemann. Les six sonates pour violon et clavecin écrites à Frankfurt en 1715 et dédiées au Prince Johann Ernst de Saxe-Weimar en témoignent. Selon le manuscrit original français, elles correspondent à six vertus qui sont successivement : la vivacité de l’Esprit sublime, la manière glorieuse, la beauté de l’âme, la bonté de cœur, la sage modestie et la pénétration de l’Esprit. Les interprètes, sans doute très inspirés par le propos, brillants et sensibles dans la narration de ces œuvres, renouvellent un Telemann au goût du jour. Un disque pétillant ! (Philippe Zanoly) Rare is the month at present when Brilliant Classics does not release a new recording which delves further into the protean output of that most prolific of composers, Georg Philipp Telemann. In the year that he is remembered with particular enthusiasm, 250 years after his death in Hamburg, the breadth of his achievement can be appreciated more than ever, not least thanks to recent recordings of the recorder sonatas (BC95247), concertos and suites for flute (BC95147), double concertos with recorder (BC95249), oboe concertos (BC95379), and a reissue of the classic account of the complete Tafelmusik (BC92177), which is the modern counterpart to the Bruggen recording that brought Telemann’s name to so many listeners half a century ago. Much of this music, it will be noted, concentrates on the composer’s fondness for wind instruments. Now Valerio Losito brings our attention to the accompanied sonatas. Rather as with Bach, when we think of Telemann and the violin, it is the unaccompanied music that first springs to mind, for the free and unbridled imagination and the evident pleasure it gives to violinists who perform and record the 12 fantasias. However (like Bach), Telemann produced a set of six sonatas for violin accompanied by harpsichord, with or without a separate basso continuo, and first published in 1715. The sonatas were effectively his opus 1, published in 1715 at the comparatively late age of 24, and dedicated to the violinplaying Duke of Saxe-Weimar, from whom Telemann evidently wished to curry favour to judge from his long and obsequious preface. In just six sonatas may be found a remarkable diversity of elements: the Italianate style and Corelli-like fugues of Sonatas 1 and 5, echoes of Polish and ‘gypsy’ folk music in Sonatas 3 and 4, melodious arias reminiscent of Handel in sonata 3, and dance movements in the French style in Sonatas 2 and 6. Telemann’s genius allowed him to condense and reconcile in one volume parallel worlds that would appear to be mutually incompatible. Valerio Losito’s diverse musical interests and accomplishments are reflected in his discography on Brilliant Classics, which centres on music of the Baroque. Violin Sonatas by Tessarini (BC94787) and Veracini (BC94822) testify to a scholarly hunger for the unusual and little-known, but he has also promoted the cause of the viola d’amore, with a mixed album of solo Baroque (BC94367), music by Domenico Scarlatti (BC94242) and the late-Romantic Austrian composer Robert Lach (BC95321).
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