Tag: Georg Philipp Telemann

Ton Koopman 80th Birthday Celebration, Soloists of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, 29 November 2024

Ton Koopman, Paris, Cité de la Musique, 2008, Photo by Paul Ruet, CC 3.0

What a lovely, relaxing concert this was. Not so relaxing getting to The Wig on a Friday evening in the run up to Christmas. Nor all that relaxing navigating the inners of a packed Wigmore Hall. But once we were in our seats…bliss.

Janie must have asked me three times if it was ACTUALLY Ton Koopman‘s birthday that day. I said “probably not” and was right, but he had just turned 80 a few week’s before the concert, so this must be his 80th birthday tour.

A man who has dedicated his career to the Baroque canon, we sensed that Koopman surrounds himself with the finest exponents of baroque music, making a happy atmosphere and sound with those people.

Here is a link to the programme on The Wigmore Hall site. If by chance anything befalls that link, here is a scrape.

All of the pieces were by Telemann. Before the interval, we heard:

  • Trio Sonata in D minor for recorder, violin and continuo TWV42:d7
  • Trio Sonata in G minor for oboe, violin and continuo TWV42:g5
  • Sonata in F minor for bassoon and continuo TWV41:f1
  • Trio Sonata in F for violin, viola da gamba and continuo TWV42:F10
  • Quartet in D minor for recorder, traverso, bassoon and continuo from Tafelmusik II TWV43:d1

After the interval we heard:

  • Trio Sonata in C for recorder, traverso and continuo TWV42:C1
  • Quartet in G for traverso, oboe, violin and continuo TWV43:G2
  • Trio Sonata in F for recorder, viola da gamba and continuo TWV42:F3
  • Quartet in G for recorder, oboe, violin and continuo TWV43:G6

You might get a feel for the sound from the following YouTube, which includes Robert Smith (whom we saw) on the bass viol and focuses on recorder sonatas, of which we heard a few:

Or this one, which is a live performance of a Telemann trio sonata with recorder and viol:

Or this one, a movement from the Oboe Sonata g5 recorded by Ton Koopman and his then mates 30 years ago:

Indeed, that 1994 album looks great – I have playlisted it on my YouTube Music here – this link should work even if it looks crossed out.

Musical Polyglots, Improviso, St John’s Smith Square Lunchtime Concert, 16 May 2019

The above picture borrowed from Improviso’s website – click here or through the picture to read more about them.

A second visit for me to the London Festival of Baroque Music in a week – the first with Janie to see Jordi Savall.

Howay, Wey Aye, Man! – A Canny Interview With Jordi Savall Followed By A Canny Concert, L‘Europa Musicale: From The Renaissance To Baroque, Hespèrion XXI, St John’s Smith Square, 12 May 2019

The themes for the festival and from the 12 May concert continued in this charming lunchtime concert by Improviso – namely ideas around cross-fertilisation of musical ideas across countries/continents, plus the use of improvisation as part of the musical fabric in the Baroque period.

The concert is described on the festival website through this link – click here…

…and similarly described on the St John’s Smith Square website – click here.

I thought this concert might appeal to John Random, who enjoys these lunchtime concerts when we are both available for such. In fact the timing worked so well for us that John was also available to join me at Lord’s for a while after the concert.

While I was striding my way towards Smith Square, a voice to the right of me said “hello Ian”; it was John Friend, taking lunch in a cafe I was passing. Sadly I couldn’t stop to chat with him, but the irony of running into John Friend while on my way to utilise my “Friend of St John’s” rights to lunchtime concerts was not wasted on either of us.

The concert was lovely, with some unusual works as well as some familiar pieces.

Below is some of the Mecmûa-i Sâz ü Söz played in the traditional Ottoman style, rather than the Wojciech Bobowski adaptation which was played by our Improviso quartet.

https://youtu.be/EYLIASW44kI

I cannot find any examples of Improviso playing the pieces we heard at this lunchtime concert, but they do have several lovely examples on their website – click here, including the Castello sonata, embedded below:

John and I had, in fact, enjoyed seeing Johan Löfving perform before – just a few months ago, at such a lunchtime concert…

A Random Concert With John Random: Flauguissimo Duo, The English And French Gardens, St John’s Smith Square, 10 January 2019

…but the addition of three more musicians in Improviso, rather than just the duo, enabled each of the musicians to show their individual and collective talents superbly.

Below you can hear the charming Blavet sonata we heard, on this recording performed by Jed Wentz:

Below is the allegro from the Telemann Trio Sonata we heard, but performed by a different young quartet, Ensemble Tolmetes:

In addition to the several pieces listed on the programme, Improviso also improvised a La Folia, very energetically and beautifully I might say. This, for me, felt like a full circle, as Jordi Savall and his pals had performed a couple of La Folias on the Sunday.

Below, a very different La Folia interpretation from any that I saw this week, but an exceptional one by Jordi Savall, family and pals:

But returning to Improviso, they are a very talented young quartet who seem to take great pleasure in making music together and in explaining what they are doing to a rapt audience.

To round off this Ogblog piece, here are Improviso performing William Byrd’s charming tune, John Come Kiss Me Now, demonstrating their style of improvisation:

Tabea Debus, St John’s Smith Square, Lunchtime Concert, 12 April 2018

I was determined to get to SJSS and see this concert, as I had earmarked this particular concert as an interesting one for some time.

Here is a link to the SJSS page for the concert.

Just in case that link no longer works, here is a scrape of that page.

The week had somewhat run away with me, though, having ruled out much of the previous work day unexpectedly for Hazel Jacobs’s funeral, followed by the Middlesex CCC AGM, which also had a somewhat funereal feel to it this season.

Anyway, I got to the office after an early meeting at the LSE and managed to get my office stuff done by the appointed hour, so I was able to hot-foot it to SJSS on time.

A jolly looking harpsichord

I thought Tabea Debus came across really nicely – showing great enthusiasm and academic interest in her instrument and the topic of the concert, while projecting also the poise and folksiness of a true show-person. A star in the making.

She has previous at SJSS and they in fact made a short vid for her first mini-residency as a young artist a couple of years ago – see below:

The concert I saw was mostly Telemann – the theme being the subscription lists Telemann developed during his masterful music business career, plus the high-falutin’ composers who were among his subscribers and friends; Bach, Handel and Blavet.

Below is a video of Tabea performing some delicious Telemann, but not the stuff we scoffed that lunchtime:

Tabea also played a couple of modern works which were part of a commission commemorating the 250th anniversary of Telemann’s death. One of those, Frank Zabel’s “…fizzling out” was extraordinarily complex-sounding and must be a real challenge to play.

Then on to a music lesson for my humble skills – although Ian Pittaway seemed surprisingly pleased with my simple transcription of a Loqueville Rondo.

Then on to punish myself with two real tennis singles matches at Lord’s – 135 minutes unbroken is too long for an old geezer like me.

But I digress.

That lunchtime at SJSS was an hour supremely well spent.  I’ll be looking out for Tabea Debus’s name again, that’s for sure.

Finns Ain’t What they Used To Be, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, 6 January 2018

OK, this baroque concert didn’t really have that dreadful pun as its title – but it did have a tongue-in cheek humour to it, certainly in the first half, which was dedicated to Telemann’s work.

Here is a link to the programme and basic information from the Wigmore Hall site.

Both of the Telemann pieces are relative rarities, new to the ears even of Telemaniacs like me and Janie:

  • Ouverture burlesque in B flat major TWV55:B8
  • Trauer-Music eines kunsterfahrenen Canarienvogels (Canary Cantata) TWV20:37

The Helsinki Baroque is a very together orchestra; seemingly a group of dedicated musicians who enjoy playing with and riffing off each other. We suspect that Aapo Häkkinen is metaphorically “gentle yet strong glue” for this Finnish combo.

Carolyn Sampson was the soprano for the evening. She stood right in front of us and sang magnificently.

The Canary Cantata – in full “Cantata of Funeral Music For An Artistically-Trained Canary Whose Demise Brought the Greatest Sorrow to his Master”, really is a most unusual piece.

Click here (or the embedded YouTube below) for a recording of a young American soprano, MaryRuth Lown, singing the piece;

My so-called friends who thought my German singing sounded like Yiddish in my Innsbruck Ich Muss Dich Lassen performance the other week should click through and hear this aria.

Gresham Society Soirée, Barnards Inn Hall, 14 December 2017

It begins with the following line oft-repeated:

O weh! mein Canarin ist tot

…which means, for those who need a translation into lingua franca…

Oy vay! in drerd mein feygele.

…but I’m diving too deep into detail. Actually if you want to read the whole cantata in English, click through the YouTube link above (not the embedded vid) as a full translation is there on YouTube. Weirdorama lyrics.

The second half of the concert was more “regular” in terms of familiarity and style, but still hugely interesting and enjoyable. J S Bach for this half:

  • Concerto in D major for harpsichord BWV1054 (from Violin Concerto in E major BWV1042)
  • Cantata: Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen BWV51

I don’t think I had heard that concerto with the harpsichord as lead instrument before; I have recordings of it on violin and piano.

The cantata was spectacularly good; Carolyn Sampson on top form, as was Nicholas Emmerson on baroque trumpet, going red in the face trying to get such a complex string of notes out at pace on that challenging instrument.

The encore was a complete change of mood, from the jubilant Bach “Jauchzet Gott” cantata to the mournful Handel “Eternal Source Of Light Divine” cantata.

The encore was also a triumph; albeit a calming one rather than an uplifting one. Here is a YouTube of Iestyn Davies singing it:

All in all, it was a wonderful gig; a delicious start to the year for our concert going.

I cannot find a YouTube of Carolyn Sampson with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, nor of that orchestra performing any of the pieces we heard, but the following YouTube gives a feel for that orchestra’s work at that scale (16 or so members) on a work of that period with a fine soprano…

…while the following is a YouTube of Carolyn Sampson with a different super orchestra – The Sixteen:

Telemann And JS Bach, Florilegium, Wigmore Hall, 30 March 2013

You don’t get to hear Telemann’s Tafelmusik in the concert hall all that often, although we had seen The Academy For Ancient Music perform some, also at The Wig, only six months earlier – click here or below:

A Musical Feast: From Schein To Telemann, Academy Of Ancient Music, Wigmore Hall, 21 September 2012

The attraction of this Florilegium concert was partly the Tafelmusik (we were to hear some highlights from Part One whereas we’d heard Part Two last time…

…but to a greater extent a chance to hear some Bach Easter music we had not heard before – here is a link to the Wigmore Hall resource on this concert so you can see exactly what went on.

It was a very enjoyable concert. Florilegium are always top notch – or rather they always have been when we’ve seen them.

The Easter Oratorio is a super choice for Florilegium, with their core strength being woodwind. I recall they also drummed up some fairly splendid trumpets for the occasion too. The singing soloists had beautiful voices.

Below is a vid of the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists under John Elliot Gardiner performing the piece. Larger scale, but a lovely vid and it will certainly give you an idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ICH1gK5fQ

I remember Janie remarking that the concert was just what the doctor should have ordered…

…at that stage of Janie’s “resurrection” that was a multi-layered joke, together with being a truthful reflection on what a tonic the concert had been.

Gorgeous, it was.

A Musical Feast: From Schein To Telemann, Academy Of Ancient Music, Wigmore Hall, 21 September 2012

You don’t have to be a Telemaniac (nor a Beliber) to have enjoyed this concert …but it helps.

We absolutely loved it, but then we are lovers of Baroque music by the likes of Telemann and Biber.

Further, we were treated to some early Baroque by Schein and Simpson, to whet our appetites and to show us how table music emerged as a genre in the 17th century.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall resource for that evening.

The Academy Of Ancient Music (AAM), bless ’em, have put their full programme up on their website, so I am sure this entitles me to add a link to their pdf – there is some really interesting reading material in the programme.

Below is a short vid that shows the AAM under Richard Egarr rehearsing a Telemann concerto – one of my favourites as it happens:

Below is a nice selection of Telemann Tafelmusik – but not by AAM:

Finally, for those unfamiliar with Thomas Simpson (as we were) who would like to hear a small sample – below a little woodwind sampler, provenance unknown beyond the YouTube details provided:

Famous Castrati Arias For Senesino And His Rivals, Wigmore Hall, 27 March 2009

Say what you like about Daisy, but she does like a nice bit of castrati.

So we made a second visit to the Wigmore Hall that month (a busy start there in 2009 generally in fact) to see this lovely concert, with Daniel Taylor providing the counter-tenor equivalent of castrati singing and Rachel Brown providing beautiful flute and recorder performances.

I found an excellent review by Robert Hugill – click here – which says plenty, including even an account of the encore.

Here’s what we saw:

The English Concert, Wigmore Hall, 15 March 2009

Was this the first time we saw Mahan Esfahani? Probably. This concert is listed on Esfahani’s Wikipedia entry (at the time of writing) as his first major concert.

Was this the first time we heard a composition by J G Goldberg (he of Goldberg variations fame)? For sure.

A delightful concert as always by this low key but consistently masterful lot.

Pretty much all you need to know on this one page

There’s a tiny bit more about it on ClassicalSource.com – click here and skim to the correct date.

A very relaxing end to the weekend.

Emmanuel Pahud, Trevor Pinnock & Jonathan Manson, Wigmore Hall, 17 January 2009

A very beautiful, flute-based, baroque concert. What more could one ask for at the start of a new year – our first concert of 2009?

All three are excellent musicians and they played beautifully individually and together.

This is what they played:

We went home very happy – I suspect with some Ranoush shawarmas in our hands.

Wachet Auf: The King’s Consort At The Wigmore Hall, 9 December 1999

“Wachet Auf” means “Wake Up!”, which was possibly an early call for wokery back in the Baroque period…or possibly not. In any case, I wouldn’t recommend English speakers barking this German language expletive after a couple of G&Ts – it might be misunderstood.

We rated this gig “very good”. Some lesser known works by Bach’s lesser known contemporaries, sandwiched between a bit of Telemann and a bit of Bach:

  • Ouverture “Perpetuum Mobile”, Georg Philipp Telemann
  • Balletti Lamentabili a 4, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
  • O Heilige Zeit, Johann Kuhnau
  • Sinfonia No 2 in C Minor, Johann Ludwig Krebs
  • Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns die Strimme Cantata BWV 140, Johann Sebastian Bach

Here is O Heilige Zeit performed by Solomon’s Knot:

Here is the Krebs Sinfonia, performed by Capella jenensis:

Here is a recording of Wachet Auf by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman…

…whom we saw 25 years later performing Telemann sonatas and Tafelmusik at The Wig:

Ton Koopman 80th Birthday Celebration, Soloists of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, 29 November 2024