Telemann: The Double Concertos with Recorder Erik Bosgraaf

• Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 - 1767): Concerto for Recorder and Flute in E Minor, TWV 52:e1:
• 1I. Largo03:52
• 2II. Allegro04:15
• 3III. Largo03:39
• 4IV. Presto02:45
• Concerto for 2 Recorders in A Minor, TWV 52:a2:
• 5I. Gravement02:13
• 6II. Vistement01:34
• 7III. Largement01:56
• 8IV. Vivement02:07
• Concerto for Recorder and Bassoon in F Major, TWV 52:F1:
• 9I. Largo04:25
• 10II. Vivace05:21
• 11III. —04:15
• 12IV. Allegro03:30
• Concerto for Recorder and Viola da Gamba in A Minor ,TWV 52:a1:
• 13I. Grave03:50
• 14II. Allegro04:06
• 15III. Dolce03:31
• 16IV. Allegro04:11
• Concerto for 2 Recorders in B-Flat Major, TWV 52:B1:
• 17I. Grave02:07
• 18II. Vivace01:32
• 19III. Tendrement01:48
• 20IV. Gayment02:04
• Total Runtime01:03:01

Info for Telemann: The Double Concertos with Recorder

The third new recording by recorder phenomenon Erik Bosgraaf of music by Georg Philipp Telemann, as a preparation for the Telemann-year 2017. This recording contains the double concertos with recorder: for two recorders or in combination with traverso, bassoon or viola da gamba.

Telemann himself was a professional recorder player. These concertos contain some of his most personal music, his usual brilliance, wit and virtuosity alternate with passages of deep emotion and melancholy.

Erik Bosgraaf is one of the most remarkable recorder players of today.

Equally at home in early as well as contemporary music he extends the limits of his instrument, achieving an extreme range of expression and unheard-of effects.

Erik Bosgraaf has won international acclaim for his Brilliant Classics recordings of music from Jakob van Eyck (Der Fluyten Lust Hof) to Pierre Boulez (Dialogues). His discography includes no fewer than three previous albums dedicated to Georg Philipp Telemann, the composer who more than any other in the German Baroque elevated the recorder and its relatives to the status of a high-art instrument, capable of hitherto undreamt expressive range and technical refinement.

Following those albums of solo fantasias, accompanied sonatas, and suites and concertos, Bosgraaf now presents a selection of concertos, composed during the first decades of the eighteenth century, in which he is paired with a second soloist, be it another recorder, a bassoon or viola da gamba. Telemann himself confessed that his concertos ‘smell of France’, which may indeed be scented not only in some of their movement titles but in the stately dotted rhythms and graceful ornamentation of their slower movements.

However, Telemann also imbues ritornellos and especially solo episodes with great rhythmic drive, primarily derived from Polish folk music, and continually surprises the listener with rapid switches between short-range and long-range imitation, unpredictable rhythmic patterns and quickfire banter with the orchestra. The only conservative feature of these concertos is their four-movement form, slow–fast– slow–fast.

Bosgraaf is partnered by his own Ensemble Cordevento and joined by distinguished ‘period’-trained instrumentalists from the UK, Germany and his native Netherlands. The album makes an ideal taster to the musical banquet which will be laid on throughout 2017, in celebration of Telemann’s 250th birthday.

Erik Bosgraaf, recorder & direction
Ensemble Cordevento

Erik Bosgraaf
Hailed as one of the most gifted and versatile recorder players of the new generation, Erik Bosgraaf has a colourful past in a rock band and as an oboe player. He believes that good music is irrespective of style and feels equally at home in early and contemporary music as well as commissioning new works including several concertos incorporating new media.

In 2007 Frans Brüggen invited him to perform Bach's Actus Tragicus at the Concertgebouw. Current engagements include solo performances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra/Jaap van Zweden and the Dutch Radio Chamber Philharmonic/Thierry Fischer. His début recording, a 3-CD box with music by Dutch composer Jacob van Eyck, was number one in the Dutch classical music charts in 2007 and his CD/DVD 'Big Eye', including contemporary music for film, was hailed as 'wacky, irreverent and thought-provoking' (Gramophone). He has also made CDs of Telemann, Bach, Handel and Vivaldi.

In 2006 he co-founded Ensemble Cordevento specializing in the music of the 17th and 18th century. He was selected as Rising Star by the ECHO to tour all major European concerthalls in season 2011-12. Born in The Netherlands in 1980, Erik Bosgraaf is a former student of Walter van Hauwe and Paul Leenhouts (Amsterdam). He also holds an MA in musicology from Utrecht University and received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2009. In 2011 he received the highest Dutch state prize, the Dutch Music Award.

Booklet for Telemann: The Double Concertos with Recorder