This anthology of chamber music by Telemann includes five works from one of his most interesting publications, the Essercizii musici (Hamburg: c. 1740). Three of the works are solos for treble recorder, oboe, viola da gamba and continuo; a fourth is for solo harpsichord while the fifth is a trio sonata for recorder, oboe and continuo. The remaining piece is another trio for the same combination.
Telemann almost invariably wrote effectively for woodwind instruments. He played most of them and knew better than most wherein lay their strengths and weaknesses. Thus the virtuoso Sonata in D minor for treble recorder explores the range of this instrument in a way that few composers other than Handel seemed able to achieve. Less familiar to Telemann enthusiasts and specialists will be the Harpsichord Solo in C major. In form it approximates to a French suite with a prelude (not so named), allemande, courante, a pair of menuets, a gigue and a movement marked ''Lura'', or, in other words, Loure. The idiom is a blend of French and Italian styles but almost always unmistakeably German and, in the case of the allemande, recalling Bach. Both trios are well constructed with affecting slow movements and lively part-writing in the fast ones.
The performances are sympathetic and show a stylistic awareness; but the level of technical executancy of period instruments is variable. The oboe playing, though fluent in the solo sonata, sounds strained in the C minor Trio. The recorder player is versatile but his vibrato is poorly controlled. The harpsichordist gives a lively performance of the solo keyboard suite; he plays rhythmically and articulates phrases clearly and eloquently. The viola da gamba playing is hesitant at times and the cantabile opening of the E minor Sonata is a little jerky. Intonation, too, is unreliable and his tone is not evenly projected. Even so, I enjoyed what are unquestionably affectionate performances of chamber music which often shows off Telemann at his most inventive. All the instruments are copies of seventeenth- or eighteenth-century models and their sound is captured with immediacy in a pleasantly spacious acoustic. The presentation is detailed but laid out in a confusing fashion making indentification of individual items difficult. The Trio in F major, incidentally, is wrongly listed as a solo for recorder in the booklet titling.'