Customer Reviews

Telemann:Tafelmusik (Complete) [Box Set]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I've been looking at this box set for a while now hoping that someone would buy it and review it. I've seen these sets sell for over $100, so I thought this one would be a dud at only $11.99. And with no samples, I just about wrote it off. But finally I took a chance.

I'm here to tell ya that if you like this music, don't hesitate to buy this box set. It has great sound, performances, and liner notes. Don't let the price fool you. I would have paid this price for the first cd alone. I don't know how these cds are selling at this price, but I won't argue.

I hope this opens the flood gates!

For those of you who like or, as I do, love Baroque music it doesn't get better than this. If you have not gotten past the three giants of Baroque---Bach, Handel and Vivaldi---it is time you discovered the magic of the most prolific of them all---Telemann. I have a great deal of Telemann's music, up until now only vocal music, many cantatas and a couple of delightful operas. Now I am into Telemann's instrumental music and have acquired quite a few CDs. I think his Tafelmusik is the best. But truly I don't think he ever wrote a bad note. Everything he wrote has a certain spirit, a joie de vivre. This set is ridiculously cheap and I heartily recommend it.

The price has apparently risen since the last review, but it's still a steal! The performance is on period instruments. Several recordings here are among the best out there, such as the first Quator (much sweeter than the well-known Musica Antiqua Koln issue), and all three overtures are well done. This is a very competitive set.

For a moment, I'd like to address the place of Telemann in music. So often he is denigrated in favor of other composers. I will admit that Bach is greater, but I find Rameau and Handel to be his equals, and it makes me cringe every time people rank better than him the predictable and repetitive mass that is Vivaldi. Vivaldi wrote some lovely pieces (such as the Recorder concertos), but many more ordinary, homogenous pieces, however new and influential his style was. That criticism can hardly be leveled at Telemann, each of whose pieces is somehow unique.

If you want to be a Telemann convert, the Tafelmusik is exactly the place to start.

As the other reviewers have already alluded to, this package of Telemann's Table Music is truly a very pleasant surprise. It is DDD mastered and hence comes in very good sound quality although a little too compressed for my taste but at least without any hiss or other sonic imperfections. The packaging is very, very well put together by Brilliant Classics and is as good as anything EMI or Deutsche Grammaphon have put out with excellent cardboard casing housing 4 cds in mini-lp sleeves. Also included is an 8-page booklet detailing a brief history of Telemann's life as well as the fine credentials of authentic instrument outfit Musica Amphion's work on this excellent recording.

Few realise that Telemann himself was a prodigy and was well respected as a composer in his day being a contemporary with his good friend Handel as well as J S Bach and an aged Vivaldi. All the composers shared ideas among themselves and "borrowed" some of them for use in their own music. In fact, Handel's "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" sounds a lot like one of the pieces in this set.

Although lesser known among his other more illustrious contemporary composers probably due to the fact that most of his prolific work is sadly lost nevertheless I think you will find that Telemann's work here is exemplary and certainly is a worthy representative of the Baroque genre.

This box set which is very well packaged and put together with good sound quality and a decent price is certainly worthy of addition to your classical sonic library.

Recommended.

Just heard the Concerto for 3 Violins in F Major on KUSC on Tuesday, 03/23/2010. So, I stuck around to get the data on the work so that I could purchase it! Wouldn't you know it was (1)Telemann and (2)performed by Musica Amphion conducted by a certain Mr. Pieter-Jan Belder? Why do I even bring this up? Folks, I bought this collection in Spring 2009! At a great price (no-less!), and I just let this top-flite work gather dust on top of my stereo. Genius move on my part! Buy this work today (5 hours of music great at any price, but you can get in the $20/US range on Amazon!)!.

I rate this CD: 5 stars!

P.S., Again...I can't any more to the accolades already offered for this CD, it's that good, in my opinion!

Music of this sort, written perhaps for when one might be at table eating, really commands more attention than the designation of "Tafelmusik" might suggest. There are some wonderful surprises here, typical of Telemann's inventiveness, and the performances are solid and consistent from piece to piece. For the price, this performance of thoroughly enjoyable Telemann is a bargain.

Very good baroque music, excellently produced. A joy to have in your day. And a bargain.

Telemann's French Suites (I believe they are called) were probably the most well received I read somewhere and agree they are among his best works. This Tafelmusik ranks up there along side..love these recordings. If you do not know Teleman and like Bach, buy this CD or the French Suites; you will not be dissappointed.

This is a complete collection of this famous Tafelmusik (Music at dinner table). Very entertaining and full of emotional shades, bright and sorrowful. There are some CDs selecting some of the most famous or most beutiful pieces from this collection. But I have found some which rarely are included in selections but most fascinating.
Telemann:Tafelmusik (Complete) [Box Set]

Telemann was criticized for writing too much. No joke. His prolific output was somehow equated with rushed, soulless work...he was, in his day, the musical equivalent of Stephen King in a world of literary snots.

But listen. Just put it on, sit down and listen. His music is emotional, lilting, intelligent, delicate, courageous, ordered, and simply, beautiful. Every song is like a river that flows with perfect sensibility. His Tafelmusik is like a maple tree you might find in your yard...comforting in the background, and beautiful when really paid attention to. Pardon the similes and metaphors, but I am in heaven as I listen.

Telemann's volume of output bespeaks, in my opinion, his BRILLIANCE. He wrote a lot, true, but his pieces were of the highest quality. In that way, he was more like a cross between Stephen King and Mark Twain. High output, high quality.

The price for this set is like a divine gift. BUY THIS. Don't ask questions.