These 12 Fantasias, which together comprise 41 high-Baroque morsels, fall into two sets of six: the first largely sorrowful and mournful, the second happy galanteries. Originally written for the violin, Ori Kam (viola player of the Jerusalem Quartet) has transcribed them for viola, respectfully pointing out in the booklet-notes that, as Telemann was such a performance butterfly (he constantly expressed his desire to learn ‘every’ instrument and played many of them well), he hopes he wouldn’t have minded. Interestingly, as the viola is so much closer to the human voice in its register (just bringing the notes down a register makes them suddenly warm up), it has an edifyingly chameleonesque ability to adapt to the voice of its player.

It is certainly true on this recording that Ori Kam’s voice is completely his own and that as a result these little vignettes come across less as musical soundbites than free-standing monologues. It’s a joyful and engaging way of hearing them, and due not only to the beauty of Telemann’s writing – there is his own native folk music in there, along with polyphony, and internal dialogue that Bach himself could have been pleased with, as well as the kind of sequences that light up his Viola Concerto with such joy – but to the variety of colours and moods Kam brings to its performance. He is given a particular opportunity to make music here (the pieces are more concerned with sonority and melody than virtuosity), and he seizes it with as much enthusiasm as Telemann evidently had for its composition.