Telemann Viola Concerto in G Major

Viola Concerto in G Major

George Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

To those who automatically associate the names of J. S. Bach and George Frideric Handel with the glory years of the late Baroque age in the first half of the 18^th century, it can come as a bit of a shock to discover that while Handel was certainly quite celebrated, Bach was little more than a figure of local importance, although well-known as the finest organist of his day. In the German musical world the composer of supreme fame and influence was Georg Philipp Telemann, whose long life extended right into the age of Haydn and the boyhood of Mozart. Born in a family of remarkable sophistication and culture (nearly all of his ancestors earned university degrees), Telemann traveled widely, received a superb education (including university studies), and from his earliest years held important positions in major German cities, including Leipzig, Frankfurt and Hamburg. His energy and industry were staggering: Telemann composing well over 1000 cantatas, and more than 40 Passion settings for use in the Lutheran church, hundreds of songs, scores of sonatas, hundreds of concerti, hundreds of orchestral suites---perhaps upwards of 3, 000 compositions! There are two surviving concerti for viola, the best-known being the Concerto in G Major.

Telemann’s best-known instrumental music tends to reveal the strong influence of the French style, which is as much to be found in German music of the early 18^th century as the influence of the lively Italian style, which music-lovers today most of all associate with the works of Antonio Vivaldi. But Italian instrumental music was an equally important factor in the development of Telemann’s own individual style, as can be heard in the G Major Viola Concerto. Unlike the solo concertos of Telemann’s friend and contemporary, J. S. Bach, which are almost always laid out in the three-movement (fast/slow/fast) format exemplified by the works of Vivaldi, Telemann here follows an earlier Italian model, one closely resembling the old “trio sonata” pattern found in the concertos of Arcangelo Corelli and other Italian composers working at the end of the 17^th century. This calls for a sequence of four movements (slow/fast/slow/fast), fairly short in duration, and somewhat less lavish in virtuosic display than the later examples written by Vivaldi and Bach. The opening Largo leads off with a dignified, lilting Ritornello (played by the strings), then taken up by the solo viola. This introductory material then glides through several related keys, with a cadenza (a modern interpolation not customarily found in Telemann’s day), and a quiet close in the home key of G. The Allegro second movement is filled with rhythmic vigour, surprisingly suggestive of Vivaldi in its brilliant character. As with the first movement, here again the Ritornello, that characteristic Baroque device so characteristic of Italian string writing, is employed to give a structural clarity to the music: heard at the outset, again at midpoint, and in the final bars of the movement. The third movement, an Andante, is set in E Minor, with a delicately-inflected melodic line heard over a restless bassline, always moving forward with quiet determination. (Once again, modern editors have introduced a cadenza toward the end of this movement.) The Presto finale has a dance-like character, emphasised by the use of “binary” form (a movement in two section, each repeated.) The mood is brisk, cheerful and eager.

NCO Concert