01. Ouverture Suite in E-Flat Major, TWV 55eS2 I. Ouverture
02. Ouverture Suite in E-Flat Major, TWV 55eS2 II. Menuet I & II
03. Ouverture Suite in E-Flat Major, TWV 55Es2 III. Sarabande
04. Ouverture Suite in E-Flat Major, TWV 55Es2 IV. Bourrée, en echo altern.
05. Ouverture Suite in E-Flat Major, TWV 55Es2 V. Passepied I & II
06. Ouverture Suite in E-Flat Major, TWV 55Es2 VI. Gavotte
07. Ouverture Suite in E-Flat Major, TWV 55Es2 VII. Gigue
08. Ouverture Suite in A Minor, TWV 552 I. Ouverture
09. Ouverture Suite in A Minor, TWV 552 II. Les plaisirs
10. Ouverture Suite in A Minor, TWV 552 III. Air à l’Italien
11. Ouverture Suite in A Minor, TWV 552 IV. Menuet I & II
12. Ouverture Suite in A Minor, TWV 552 V. Réjouissance
13. Ouverture Suite in A Minor, TWV 552 VI. Passepied (I & II)
14. Ouverture Suite in A Minor, TWV 552 VII. Polonoise
15. Recorder Concerto in F Major, TWV 511 I. Affettuoso
16. Recorder Concerto in F Major, TWV 511 II. Allegro
17. Recorder Concerto in F Major, TWV 511 III. Adagio
18. Recorder Concerto in F Major, TWV 511 IV. Menuet I & II
19. Recorder Concerto in C Major, TWV 511 I. Allegretto
20. Recorder Concerto in C Major, TWV 511 II. Allegro
21. Recorder Concerto in C Major, TWV 51 1 III. Andante
22. Recorder Concerto in C Major, TWV 511 IV. Tempo di menuet

Telemann’s concertos offer a unique combination of virtuosity, wit and sense of the theatrical. Having taught himself to play the instrument as a child, the German master had a special understanding of and fondness for the recorder, and for it he created a new hybrid form, the Suite auf Concertenart, which combines soloistic display with baroque dances.

These suites and concertos may be less overtly virtuosic than works in the same genre which were beginning to appear around the same time over the other side of the Alps, but Telemann yields nothing to his Italian counterparts in terms of melodic freshness and fertility. The suites are styled in the French manner, as a series of courtly dances, though the A minor Suite features a grand and tragic ‘Air in the Italian style’ and concludes with a snappy Polonaise – one of Telemann’s favourite dance rhythms – reeling away like an inspired tavern fiddler.

Erik Bosgraaf’s discography on Brilliant Classics ranges from Vivaldi (BC94637 – now also available on LP) to Boulez (BC94842), not to mention two previous sets of Telemann – the solo fantasias (BC93757) and sonatas with basso continuo (BC95247) – as well as more rarely encountered delights by Jakob van Eyck (BC93391). These discs and others have garnered both popular attention and critical praise. Of Bosgraaf’s own, composer‐approved transcription of the Dialogue de l’ombre double by Boulez, Gramophone commented that ‘balance between recorders and electronics is ideally judged, giving this music an immediacy yet also intimacy beyond that of any other recorded option.’

Closer to the recorder’s natural home in music several centuries earlier, Julie Anne Sadie wrote in the same magazine about Bosgraaf’s ‘magical version of the ubiquitous Four Seasons. ‘A carefully researched and arrestingly translucent chamber interpretation… the rapport between solo and ripieno forces is simply fabulous.’