Luogo e data di registrazione		Lutherse Kerk, Haarlem (Holland): - 20/21 Febbraio 1978 - 26/28 Settembre 1978 (*)
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Recording Supervisor		Wolf Erichson
	Recording Engineer		Teije van Geest
	Prima Edizione LP		Seon (RCA Red Seal) | RL 30343 | 2 LPs - durata 48' 27" - 44' 06" | (p) 1979 | ANA
	Edizione CD		Sony | SB2K 60883 | 2 CDs - durata 48' 27" - 44' 06" | (c) 1999 | ADD
	Original Cover		Foto: Kunio Terunuma, Tokio
	Note		-

The sonata (derived from the Italian verb sonare, to sound) was originally a piece to be sounded rather than sung, or as the dictionary compiler Janovka put it in 1701, “a grave and imposing musical work for any sort of instruments”. In the Baroque era sonatas were usually written for one or more melody instruments with the flexible accompaniment of the basso continuo - a bass line, with or without figures indicating harmonies, that could be performed by a bass instrument and/or a chordal instrument, as the circumstances of performance dictated. The broad trend during the era led from sonatas for several instruments and basso continuo towards those for one instrument and basso continuo (solos). Between these extreme combinations, beginning as early as Cima’s sonatas of 1610 and reaching a numerical and musical peak at the end of the 17th century, came the trio sonata (known then as sonata a tre or plain trio). The trio setting of two melody instruments and basso continuo, largely ignored in performance today in favour of the more concert-worthy solo sonata, was in fact “the most characteristic and numerous setting not only of the Baroque sonata but of all Baroque instrumental music, not to mention considerable vocal music” (William S. Newman, The Sonata in the Baroque Era). For Georg Philipp Telemann and other German composers of the early 18th century, the standard in trio sonata composition was set by the great Italian violinist and composer Arcangelo Corelli, whose four sets of twelve sonatas for two violins and basso continuo (first published 1681/1685/1689/1694) achieved the distinction of no fewer than 78 reprints in his lifetime, 30 of these outside Italy. Corelli established a vernacular language for the trio sonata - balanced, moderate, precise, refined - that became internationally known and “to ye musicians like ye bread of life” (Roger North, 1728). His sonatas’ deliberate avoidance of virtuosity enabled performance by professional musicians and amateurs alike. The Germans were also influenced by C0relli’s careful craftsmanship, the principle of equality of the upper parts, the active melodic participation of the bass, the slow-fast-slow-fast order of movements of his sonate da chiesa, and the fugal fast movements. In his Lebens-Lauff (1718) and Selbstbiographie (1739), Telemann acknowledges his debt to Corelli and records the esteem in which his own trio sonatas were held for their essentially Corellian virtues. He confesses that the composition of virtuoso concertos “was never close to my heart”; he has “a greater taste” for the sonata, and “I have been persuaded particularly that the trio showed my greatest strength, because I so arranged it that one part should have as much to perform as the other”. Recalling the period he spent at the ducal court at Eisenach (1707-12) he writes: “I concentrated especially on writing trio sonatas here, always arranging that the second part seemed to be the first part and the bass a natural melody in close harmony with the upper parts, and every note in its only conceivable and rightful place. It was flatteringly said that this genre displayed my powers at their best”. His trio sonatas were also singled out for praise by such eminent theorists as Scheibe (1740) and Quantz (1752). This astonishigly fluent and prolific composer has left about 145 trio sonatas, about 60 of which were published in his lifetime (the bulk after 1730), mainly issued and engraved by himself. All the sonatas circulated in manuscript throughout Germany and as far afield as France and Sweden. For a musician at that time, when music was needed, he wrote it. Telemann’s trio sonatas were written, firstly, for courts such as Eisenach, Darmstadt, Dresden and Schwerin, to be performed at “entertainments given by great princes and lords, for receptions of distinguished guests and at state banquets [and] serenades” (George Muifat, 1701). Secondly, for public concerts, such as those of the Collegia Musica he himself directed in Leipzig, Frankfurt and Hamburg. But perhaps most significantly, and increasingly throughout his life, they catered for the needs of the growing numbers of musical amateurs - for the various societies, who depended on printed music or on whatever their directors or other composers could supply them with, and for individual households, who needed Hausmusik. The purposes for which these trio sonatas were written are confirmed by the instrumentation. For the courts Telemann sometimes wrote for unusual combinations such as recorder or oboe with pardessus de viole [3], flute or violin with oboe d’amore, or violin and bassoon. Over half of the sonatas, however, including almost all of the published ones, were written for violins or flutes (separately or together) - the most popular amateur instruments at that time. Telemann’s great final collection Essercizii Musici also includes sonatas for the other important amateur instruments - recorder, oboe, viola da gamba and harpsichord [4-6, 7-10]. For this collection Telemann created four unique sonatas for a melody instrument (flute, oboe, recorder, viola da gamba), obligato harpsichord and basso continuo [5, 9]; that is, as well as a fully-realised keyboard part, there is a figured bass for a bass instrument and/or another chordal instrument. This genre lies between the older style of trio sonata and the new style of sonata for a melody instrument with obligato keyboard pioneered by such composers as J. S. Bach (violin BWV 1014-18, viola da gamba BWV 1027-29, flute BWV 1030-32. This collection also includes a sonata for recorder, viola da gamba and basso continuo [4] - a combination unique for Telemann and rare elsewhere. Often Telemann offered his amateur audience flexibility of instrumentation. For example, the trio sonata from his Der getreue Music-Meister [1] (a musical periodical for households on subscription) can be performed not only by two recorders in C major or two flutes or violins in A major, but also by more than one instrument to a part. Like Corelli, Telemann for the most part avoided great technical demands in his trio sonatas. He was able to do so without “writing down” to his audience because he himself played the harpsichord, violin and recorder to virtuoso standard and was competent on the flute, oboe, viola da gamba etc. He could therefore write for all these instruments with personal knowledge of their glories, difficulties and idiosyncrasies. Many a difficult-sounding passage “lies under the fingers”. Like other German composers of his day, Telemann tried to create a musical style that would be pleasing to all nations and all manner of men. In doing so he tied together his age’s loose strands of national style (French, Italian), counterpoint or homophony, art music or folk music, elite music or popular music, professional music or amateur music. His style is, as Sir John Hawkins said of Corelli’s, “equally intelligible to the learned and unlearned” - popular, uncomplicated and entertaining. He is progressive in striving for the “singing” melody he recommended to young composers (Lebens-Lauff). His movements have great rhythmic variety, including patterns borrowed from the polonoises and mazurkas of the Polish and Moravian folk musicians he heard in Cracow and Upper Silesia in 1705-6 which he “dressed in an Italian coat” (Selbstbiographie) [1/IV, 2/II, 3/IV, 4/I]. Contrapuntally he is more conservative; for him, as for the composers of the early Baroque, the trio sonata “provided an ideal meeting point between the older, stricter polyphony and the new emphasis on accompanied melody” (Newman). Again we suspect the influence of Corelli. Telemann in fact blends a surprising amount of counterpoint, by then unfashionable, into his trio sonatas. 2/II, for example (in a trio taken from a collection Telemann described as “written in a more sober mood”) is a full fugue; and looser fugal movements, enlivened by the “pleasing and brilliant” episodes recommended for such occasions by Quantz, are to be found, for example, in 3/II and 4/I & III. Imitations of both long and short phrases abound. Almost throughout we find the equality of the upper parts that Telemann reports having been admired by his contemporaries. But the occasional movement consisting of a melody in one part simply accompanied by the other part furnishes an interesting change of texture [1/IV & VII, 2/I]. He inventively keeps to a minimum those passages in thirds and sixths which, although “one of the ornaments of a trio” his contemporaries sometimes ”abused or dragged on ad nauseam” (Quantz). As Quantz recommends, he “regularly interrupted” them “with passagework or other imitations” [1/III, 5/II-IV, 9/I & III]. In form he drew elements from both the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) which consisted of (usually) four purely abstract movements of a serious character, and the sonata da camera (court sonata) which consisted more of dance movements in a lighter vein. [1] is close to the sonata da camera, having no fewer than eight movements, including an Italianate French Overture (I & II) and a “hunting” gigue (VII). But normally Telemann writes a four-movement form with a lighter last movement, presumably to revive flagging attention, often derived from the dance (Menuet with unaccompanied Trio section in the parallel major, 2/IV; Gavotte with “brilliant” episodes, 3/IV; Passepied, 9/IV). To sum up, “the strengths of Telemann’s sonatas lie in their fluent crafismanship, clear lines, compelling harmony, effective writing for the instruments, and satisfying structural organisation” (Newman).