Orch Of Golden Age - TELEMANN: Musique de Table

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) Musique de table (Tafelmusik), Volume 3 Part II (Continued): Quartet, Concerto,Trio, Sonata and ConclusionGeorg Philipp Telemann was among the mostdistinguished composers of his time, a rival to his friend Johann SebastianBach in reputation and the certain preference of the Leipzig authorities forthe position of Cantor at the St Thomas Choir School, where Bach was eventuallyappointed in 1723. Telemann had, in 1721, taken the position of Cantor of theJohanneum in Hamburg, with musical responsibility for the five principalchurches of the city. His negotiations with Leipzig a year later proved themeans to secure better conditions in Hamburg, where he remained until his deathin 1767. He was succeeded there by his godson Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, thesecond son of Johann Sebastian.Born in Magdeburg in 1681, Telemannbelonged to a family that had long been connected with the Lutheran Church. Hisfather was a clergyman and his mother the daughter of a clergyman, while hiselder brother also took orders, a path that he too might have followed, had itnot been for his exceptional musical ability. As a child he showed someprecocity but it was while he was a student at Leipzig University, which heentered in 1701, that a career in music became inevitable. He founded theUniversity Collegium Musicum that Bach was later to direct and in 1703 becamemusical director of the Leipzig Opera, composing some twenty operas himself. Atthe same time he involved his fellow-students in a great deal of publicperformance, to the annoyance of the Thomascantor, Bach's immediatepredecessor Kuhnau, who saw his prerogative now endangered.After Leipzig Telemann went on to become Kapellmeisterto Count Erdmann II of Promnitz, a nobleman with a taste for French music,and in 1708 moved to Eisenach, following this with a position as director ofmusic to the city of Frankfurt am Main in 1712. There were other offers ofemployment elsewhere, but it was to Hamburg that he finally moved in 1721, toremain there for the rest of his life.As a composer Telemann was prolific,providing an enormous body of work, both sacred and secular. This included 1043church cantatas and 46 settings of the Passions, one for each of the years hewas in Hamburg. He continued to involve himself in public performances of operain Hamburg, arousing some opposition from the city council, his employers. Oncehe had strengthened his position he took additional responsibility as directorof the Hamburg Opera, while active in publishing and selling much of the musicthat he wrote. Four years Bach's senior, he outlived him by seventeen years, sothat by the time of his death Haydn was 35 and Mozart was eleven. His musicalstyle developed with the times, from the characteristically late Baroque to thenew stile galant exemplified by his godson.Telemann's Musique de table waspublished in 1733, a collection of music divided into three Productions, eachone containing an overture with a suite for seven ins