GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN (1681-1767)
Fantasias for viola da gamba - YWV 40:26-37

CD I

Fantasia no. 1 in C minor, TWV 40:26
01 Adagio – Allegro – Adagio – Allegro
02 Allegro

Fantasia no. 2 in D major, TWV 40:27
03 Vivace
04 Andante
05 Vivace (da capo)
06 Presto

Fantasia no. 3 in E minor, TWV 40:28
07 Largo
08 Presto
09 Vivace

Fantasia no. 4 in F major, TWV 40:29
10 Vivace
11 Grave
12 Allegro

Fantasia no. 5 in B flat major, TWV 40:30
13 Allegro
14 Largo
15 Allegro

Fantasia no. 6 in G major, TWV 40:31
16 Scherzando
17 Dolce
18 Spirituoso

Fantasia no. 7 in G minor, TWV 40:32
19 Andante
20 Vivace
21 Allegro

Fantasia no. 8 in A major, TWV 40:33
22 Allegro
23 Grave
24 Vivace

CD II

Fantasia no. 9 in C major, TWV 40:34
01 Presto
02 Grave
03 Allegro

Fantasia no. 10 in E major, TWV 40:35
04 Dolce – Allegro – Dolce – Allegro
05 Siciliana
06 Scherzando

Fantasia no. 11 in D minor, TWV 40:36
07 Allegro
08 Grave
09 Allegro

Fantasia no. 12 in E flat major, TWV 40:37
10 Andante
11 Allegro
12 Vivace

Sonata in D major, TWV 40:1
(Der getreue Music-Meister, Lektionen 15 & 16, 1728)
13 Andante
14 Vivace
15 Recitativo
16 Andante
17 Vivace

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About this album

With his new recording of Telemann’s Fantasias Paolo Pandolfo is continuing to take the viola da gamba in directions little chartered previously. After his Kind of Satie release, Pandolfo once again demonstrates his musical versatility – whether he is drawing from the within the established gamba repertory or from beyond it. Here, Pandolfo delves into the astonishingly prolific instrumental output of Georg Philipp Telemann, a composer so well-versed in the musical diversity of his time that he was more than capable of writing for instruments of which he was not a master. Such was the case when Telemann was writing various sets of Fantasias for solo instruments, and tapping into the demand coming from the burgeoning amateur market in Hamburg.

One of these sets of 12 unaccompanied Fantasias – for the viola da gamba – was known to have been composed around 1735 but had been lost until very recently and it is only now that modern-day players are exploring Telemann’s approach to a revitalized genre but on what – by the 1730s – was becoming an increasingly outmoded instrument. From fugal writing to the galant idiom and different reflections of the French and Italian styles, Telemann packs a great deal of variety into these typically three-movement Fantasias.

Paolo Pandolfo, who contributes an incisive performer’s note in the booklet, additionally records the 1728 D major Sonata from Der getreue Music-Meister, the only other work for the viola da gamba known by Telemann, whilst Peter Wollny reflects on Telemann’s compositional development in his own essay.