Telemann is the possibly history’s most prolific composer.  The largest body of his work includes 20 complete Lutheran church year cantata cycles, amounting to about 1,700 cantatas.  He also wrote over 50 operas or secular cantatas, 125 orchestral suites, 125 concertos, 40 quartets, 130 trios, and the list goes on and on.  Telemann was Germany’s most respected and sought-after composer of the time, regarded even on even higher terms than his contemporary, J.S. Bach.  (Telemann was Godfather to J.S. Bach’s most illustrious son, C.P.E Bach.) Telemann received cantor and concertmaster position offers practically everywhere he went, and often used these offers against one another to increase his salary.

      Telemann was instrumental in the transition from the Baroque to the early Gallant style.  Telemann helped establish a German musical style, which in the 17^th century, style was less well defined than the French and Italian styles.  Around the time that he wrote the Viola Concerto (c. 1716-1721) he wrote in his autobiography, that his concertos “smell of France.”  He toned down what he considered the ostentatious virtuosity of the Italian style, and preferred the four-movement plan.  The viola concerto, with its stately opening march, brilliantly energetic second movement, lyrical third movement, and exuberant fourth movement, is a staple of the viola repertory, which lacking in pre 20^th-century concertos.  But this is not the only reason that it is one of Telemann’s most celebrated works.  The viola concerto has a buoyancy and beauty that sets it apart from the 3,000-plus compositions in Telemann’s oeuvre. 

Program Notes Copyright Beeri Moalem