Telemann: Concerto TWV 52:a2 in A minor for 2 recorders, strings & b.c.

A journey between literature and music: Don Quixote's sighs of love, the satirical humor of Gulliver's Travels or the strong passions of Lucretia and Dido. Teleman's immense sensitivity coupled with a playful irony, has brought together the young artists of Les Esprits Animaux. Baroque mind-blowing!

Les Esprits Animaux, a Netherlands-based baroque band, though only created in 2009, has already earned the acclaim of both music critics and audiences.

The Young Ensemble Series of Ambronay Editions, created in 2010, at the Centre culturel de rencontre d’Ambronay, are in turn part of the professional training and integration projects begun in 1993 with the European Baroque Academy.

Ambronay’s aim is to build a bridge between the conclusion of postgraduate studies and the start of a professional career which will also allow young musicians to affirm their artistic personality.

Volume 4 of the Telemann Wind Concerto series features five melodically rich, expressive yet demanding Concertos showing Telemann at the height of his mastery.

La Stagione Frankfurt under Michael Schneider once again give a convincing and authentic performance of these works that show off a broad instrumental and stylistic spectrum.

The Dutch Loeki Stardust Quartet was established in 1978, and from the outset was not your ‘normal’ group of recorder-players. Sure, Baroque repertoire figured prominently in their concerts, but the concerts often contained surprises, substituting the last chord of a canzone with a well-known TV signature tune for example – in this case Loeki the Lion was the TV programme that gave the quartet its name. Wanting to give concerts that were a crossover between St Martin in the Fields and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young was the aim in the early years.

A series of big engagements followed, including the Wigmore Hall with Christopher Hogwood, and then recordings for Decca which are included in this 4CD set. The maverick style of the group came to the fore again, when after a successful sequence of Baroque recordings they released a recording of music by Erroll Garner, Henry Mancini, Lennon and McCartney and Charlie Parker together with works by Vivaldi, Beethoven, J.C. and J.S. Bach.

Never before has the recorder sounded so much fun!

During his lifetime, Georg Philipp Telemann was widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the period – perhaps the greatest of them all, not forgetting J.S. Bach or Handel.

All of this great range and variety is represented in his works for the flute. Telemann wrote for the recorder as well as for the transverse flute, but the music was intended for either instrument.

The greater part of that music – from solo fantasias and duets to concertos and double concertos – has been gathered in this boxed set, in highly praised recordings by two acclaimed Swedish recorder players: Clas Pehrsson and Dan Laurin. They are supported by continuo players in the chamber music, and by the eminent Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble in the concertos, and matched by soloists such as the acclaimed baroque bassoonist Michael McCraw.