Search - Telemann, Florilegium Ensemble :: Paris Quartets

Superb and invigorating !!!

François Beaudoin | Québec, Canada (where we speak french...) | 03/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After I bought the first Telemann CD recorded by "L'Ensemble Florilegium" (Concerti da Camera, Channel Classics-CCS 5093)-wich I considered more than excellent- I had no doubt that the second one (Paris Quartets) will be outstanding. I was not decieved... Ashley Solomon is a brilliant flautist and Rachel Podger's gut violin strings bring a clean, bright sound to the ensemble. She is equally superb in the technically demanding Violin Fantasie. Above all it is the case with which Florilegium performs the most demanding moments and the players absolute mastery of their instruments that make this disc very special.I recommend it without reservation. If there is a more vivacious and beautifully recorded version currently available I should be told. The most recent one is a recording by "The Freiburger BarockConsort(HMC901787-2002. "Les Quatuors parisiens" sounds good. But this recording can't be compared with the virtuoso playing of Rachel Podger and her extraordinary partners."

Lovely execution of very happy Telemann chamber music

François Beaudoin | 08/01/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I ran into Florilegium's recent cd of the Telemann Paris quartets quite by accident while buying Hannibal the Cannibal in a bookstore. They were seductive enough to draw me away from Hannibal's dinner plans; the execution of the quartests by Florilegium is a nearly flawless balance of the lightness necessary to the quartets that Telemann seemed to have understood would make them popular and the musically weighty delivery that gives them punch. The organization of the cd, alternating between the quartets and solo fantasies for the violin, flute, and harpsichord individually works wonderfully well. This cd bears playing many times."