Luogo e data di registrazione		Doopsgezinde Kerk, Haarlem (The Netherlands): - 27/29 Novembre 1996 - 25/27 Febbraio 1997 - 4/6 Giugno 1997
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Recording supervisor		Wolf Erichson
	Recording engineer / editing		Markus Heiland (Tritonus)
	Prima Edizione LP		Nessuna
	Edizione CD		Sony "Vivarte" | LC 6868 | S3K 63 115 | 3 CDs - durata 74' 27" - 60' 00" - 59' 21" | (p) 1997 | DDD
	Cover Art		Johann Georg Ringlin (1691-1761) "Paris (France)", Kupferstich, c.1740, after Friedrich Bernhard Werner (1690-1778)
	Note		-

In his autobiography published in Johann Mattheson’s Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte [Foundations For a Portal to Honor] in 1740, the Hamburg cantor Georg Philipp Telemann wrote: “My long-postponed journey to Paris, to which I had been invited several years earlier by Parisian virtuosi who had found several of my printed works suited to their taste, began around Michaelmas in 1737 and lasted eight months. There, having received a royal general privilege for the next 20 years, I had engraved new quartets sold by subscription and six sonatas entirely constructed from melodic canons. The wonderful way in which the quartets were performed by Messrs. Blavet, flurist, Guignon, violinist, Forcroy [i.e. Forqueray] junior, gambist, and Edouard, violoncellist, would deserve a better description than I can here give you. Suffice it to say that they made the ears of both the royalty and the citizenry attentive, and earned for me a nearly general honor in a short time, which was accompanied by plenty of courtesy.” The works to which Telemann refers are the Nouveaux Quatuors en Six Suites on the present recording, as well as the popular set of canonic duets for two melody instruments without bass. The quatuors were composed with the leading professional musicians in Paris in mind: Michel Blavet (1700-1768) was one of the finest flute virtuosos of his day, as well as being an accomplished composer; Jean-Pierre Guignon (1702-1774; originally named Giovanni Pietro Ghignone) was an Italian violin virtuoso in the service of Louis XV; Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Forqueray (“le fils”; 1699-1782) was born into a famous family of French musicians (his father, the renowned gambist Antoine Forqueray, was said to have abused his son out of jealousy for his son's gifts as a player of the viola da gamba); while the identity of the cellist Edouard remains elusive. The part for the harpsichord continuo was probably taken by Telemann himself. The edition of the Nouveaux Quatuors was published while Telemann was still in Paris; the title page lists as one place where the work is obtainable Telemann’s own temporary residence in Paris (“Chez l'auteur, vis à vis la porte de l'hôtel du Temple”). The work, as Telemann indicates, was sold by subscription, with the names of the subscribers printed in the violin part. The subscription list is divided geographically into “Noms des Souscrivants de Paris et de France” and “Noms des Souscrivants des Pays Étrangers." The latter includes a “Mr. Bach, de Leipzig.” While the Nouveaux Quatuors have rightfully come to be called the “Paris” Quartets, it is somewhat less clear whether that sobriquet should be applied as well to Telemann’s first publication devoted to the quartet, the set of six Quadri also included on this recording. This set, unlike the Nouveaux Quatuors, first appeared in Hamburg, in 1730. As was his habit, Telemann engraved the plates for the publication himself. The set was indeed reissued in Paris in 1736 by Le Clerc in a more elegantly engraved edition. A notice printed on the back of the violin part claims “The quartets of Telemann have met with such universal approval that it is believed it will give the public pleasure to present them in a new edition, better engraved and on better paper than all which have appeared to the present.” Both sets share the same scoring of transverse flute, violin, viola da gamba or violoncello (two separate parts are provided from which to chose), and basso continuo. Further, it is likely that the 1736 reprint of the Quadri was among the “printed works” that suited the taste of the Paris virtuosi, prompting Telemann to compose a second set for Paris performance modeled upon the first set. Unlike many of Telemann’s Hamburg publications, the Quadri - just like the Nouveaux Quatuors - were clearly intended for professional musicians. In their brilliant mixture of French, Italian, and even Polish styles both sets of quartets reflect an overriding concern in Telemann's instrumental publications of the 1720s and ’30s: Which national styles were appropriate to the various genres, and how could national styles be combined? This concern is also reflected in many of J. S. Bach's works, as well as Quantz's famous Versuch of 1752, in which he declares that “If one has the necessary discernment to choose the best from the styles of different countries, a mixed style results that, without oversteppirig the bounds of modesty, could well be called the German style, not only because the Germans came upon it first, but because it has already been established at different places in Germany for many years, flourishes still, and displeases in neither Italy nor France, nor in other countries.” The felicitous combination of the two principal national styles of the early eighteenth century, the French and the Italian, had become a vogue in France as well, where Italian genres such as the sonata, concerto, and cantata had taken hold and had gained parity with the traditional French genres of the suite, ouverture, and air. Blavet himself was a popular composer of such mixed-style pieces in France. It is no wonder that Telemann’s two sets of quatuors, with their ingenious manifestations of the mixed style, would find favor in France as well as in Germany. The Quadri present a selection of the principal Italian and French genres: Telemann’s original title page promises “2. Concerti, 2. Balletti, 2. Sonate.” In this case the Italian “Balletti” refers to French suites, the title page adopting the Italian word for “dances” to be consistent with the Italian designation “Quadri.” The order is erroneous; the suites appear last in the collection. Thus the two principal Italian instrumental genres as well as the principal French instrumental genre are represented. The writing for the solo instruments is both virtuosic and idiomatic, and shows Telemann’s capacity for writing chamber music that reflects the urbane wit of galant conversation. Especially within the concerti and suites, however, a mixed style predominates; the sonatas are the most conservative in presenting the traditional imitative polyphony of the Corellian sonata da chiesa. The two concertos each contain movements imitating the Vivaldian ritornello structure (the Presto in the first quartet, and the Allegro and Vivace in the second quartet), with other movements showing Telemann’s galant adaptation of the idioms of both Corelli and Vivaldi. In the movements in concerto structure, the full ensemble generally simulates the orchestra, while one or more soloists present brilliant figuration in the solo passages. But the last movement of the first quartet shows the infiltration of the mixed style into the concerto by combining the quintessentially French structure of the rondeau with the rhythm of the Italian giga. The two suites which close the collection continue the idea of the mixed style. Each begins with a Prélude, which, despite the French tempo designations, is largely Italian in style. After each Prélude comes a series of movements representing either French court dances or the pièces de caractère of the Lullian opera and ballet (the “Replique” in the first suite, with its “replying” upper parts being a particularly charming example of the latter). Especially to be noted are the gigues, which are closer to the Italian giga (including the Air in the second suite), and the novel use of what C. P. E. Bach would call “veränderte Reprisen,” or “varied repeats,” in the Courante in the same suite. Here Telemann has fully written out the repetitions of both halves of the Courante, with each repetition presenting two simultaneous versions of the melody: the violin plays the original courante tune, while the flute plays an ornamented version of the same line. In fact, the flute version, with its rapid sixteenth-notes figuration, could be considered a more “Italian” version of the dance, in effect a corrente instead of the more staid French courante. This balances as well the markedly Italian accompaniment provided by the viola da gamba or cello in the first statement of each half. While the Quadri present a mixture of Italian and French genres - the concerto, sonata, and suite - the Nouveaux Quatuors reflect their thoroughly French milieu in their series of purely French suites. Each suite but the second begins with a Prélude, and is followed again by a series of dances and pièces de caractère, although only a single movement bears an actual dance designation (the Menuet in the fourth suite). The French style prevails in the collection as a whole, but a mixed style or even overtly Italian style characterizes the first movements. Three of the suites (nos. 2, 4, and 5) begin with full-fledged Italian concerto movements; the solo instrument is the flute in the movement from the second suite and the viola da gamba or cello in the fourth suite, while in the fifth suite the solo role is taken by the three melody instruments in turn. Further, in the fourth suite the opening movement is repeated intact after the second movement (“Flatteusement”), simulating the Vivaldian three-movement concerto. The opening movement of the first suite exemplifies the Italian style with its rapid arpeggiations over pedal points, Lombardic rhythms, and unisono ending. The French style appears in its purest form in some of the dances, the rondeaux (note especially the haunting rondeau, with its subtle blended colors, that appears as the second movement of the second suite), the pièces de caractere (such as the frenetic “Distrait” movement in the final suite), and the monumental chaconne (marked “Modéré”) over a six-bar bass, which closes the collection. Some of the dance allusions are presented in disguise; the third movement, for example, of the second suite (“Lègérement”) turns out to be a gigue, despite its somewhat unconventional notation. Aside from the chaconne and gigue, the unlabelled dances include the bourrée, gavotte, loure, passepied, and menuet. Telemann’s propensity for stylistic and generic experimentation is displayed at its best in the movements in the mixed style. The opening Prélude of the final suite (“À discretion - très vite”) takes the form of the French ouverture. Unlike the Italianate preludes that open the other quartets in the collection, this quartet begins with the traditional first movement of the orchestral suite. But after an opening section in the dotted rhythms typical of the ouverture, the violin takes over and plays virtuosic figuration in the manner of the Italian concerto. The same stylistic juxtaposition occurs when the movement returns to the opening tempo following the “très vite,” which itself combines elements of the French passepied with Italian violin figuration. The mixed style pervades other movements as well. The fourth movement (“Vite”) of the fourth quartet presents two national styles in alternation: a French gigue and an Italian giga. Two movements (the final movements of the second and fourth suites) comprise sets of variations in the Italian manner, although their themes are French. And a number of movements combine French ornaments, or agréments, with Italianate passagework. The twelve quartets in this recording represent some of the very finest music written for chamber ensemble in the first half of the 18th century. Indeed, Telemann's quartets were held up as models for quartet writing in both France and Germany, and contemporary writers such as Scheibe and Quann extolled them as exemplary. Ultimately, the quartet with basso continuo was to give way to the quartet without keyboard: the string quartet. But in doing so it gave up the variegated colors that Telemann exploited so brilliantly in the Quadri and Nouveaux Quatuors. 1997 Jeanne Swack