Telemann: Trio Sonatas for Recorder and Viola da Gamba

Telemann was renowned in his own day for the spontaneity and fluency of his music, which appealed to professional and amateur musicians alike. These qualities abound in his trio sonatas in particular. As he wrote in one of his autobiographies (1718): 'In particular, people wished to persuade me that trios were my greatest strength, because I arranged them so that one voice would have as much to do as the other.'

All the Telemann trio sonatas in which the recorder is accompanied by one or another of the viols can be found on this CD. As Telemann keeps changing his tune, no two trio sonatas are alike. In the Trio Sonata in D minor (TWV 42:d7) he saves the Polish style for the final measures, to achieve an irresistible finale effect. Although he does not shun virtuosity, these sonatas contain slow movements of unparalleled tenderness. The most rigorous of all, without sounding it, is the Trio Sonata in C major (TWV 42:C2), in which the recorder and the bass viol play in canon in all four movements.