Telemann and the Orchestra

Telemann’s contributions to the development of the modern orchestra should be noted.  He wrote a ton of “overtures”—not necessarily for operas, but rather as proto-symphonies.  These multi-movement works are the bridge from the concerto grosso form to the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. 

Georg Philipp Telemann, Overture in B Minor:

Telemann’s favorite instrument may have been the trumpet.  The great Maurice Andre regularly played Telemann’s trumpet concertos in concert and are among the first works of music I fell in love with.  Here is is performing the adagio that opens the first trumpet concerto in D major, which is one of the great melodic lines in music history.  And, then, the opening allegro of the Concerto in F minor.

Georg Philipp Telemann, Trumpet Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Adagio:

Georg Philipp Telemann, Trumpet Concerto in F Minor, Allegro:

2 thoughts on “Telemann and the Orchestra

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s