Can we have too much Telemann? Generations thought so, thought that even a pizzico of Telemann to balance the mounds of Bach was unwarranted. And so the many delights from his pen were little-known and little-recorded. All this by way of prologue to saying that finally, in 2003, the works on this disc must be familiar to any Telemann lover, particularly the two quartets, the latter beloved of recorder players. Does the recording from Florilegium open new vistas on these works? The instruments sound lovely, the ensemble is excellent, but something is lacking. To these ears, it is breadth, leisure, play. Too often the music rushes long without a pause, without a space, with no articulation marking the difference between what is a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph in Telemann's poetry.
What is the hurry? It is not the tempos in themselves that are hasty-they are well chosen, but that there is no attention to inflection. The recording has many good qualities, but this defect means that it is not at the top. Pity. TOM MOORE