The world’s first Concerto for viola and orchestra was composed in Frankfurt around 1720 by Georg Philipp Telemann. That took a long time, when you consider that the big and little brother, cello and violin, were already well into solo music. Telemann’s signature is undeniable: a string of baroque formulas that rarely lapse into clichés.
The listening pleasure on this album is strongly promoted by Antoine Tamestit. The French soloist plays a magnificent 1672 viola by Antonio Stradivari. The sound has both brilliance and depth; you rather hear a high singing cello than a low humming violin. Thanks to Tamestit’s resolute sticking technique, a lurking weakness on the viola, swagger, remains out of the picture.
On the album is also a Concerto for two violas and orchestra, for which the altoist of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin takes a seat. It is hard to imagine a more friendly and uplifting baroque music. In two solo fantasies, Tamestit makes his Stradivari hum wonderfully.
Antoine Tamestit
Telemann
Classic
★★★★ ☆
Harmonia Mundic
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