Now before you turn up your nose and close your ears to the prospect of Baroque and Classical works being performed by an orchestra of plucked instruments–lutes, guitars, and mandolins–and in a couple of instances, a Panflute, I urge you to try just a few minutes of Telemann’s Overture burlesque or Johann Weiss’ Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra as performed on this entertaining and very well-played program. Once the fun begins it’s hard to bring yourself to even think of stopping it. Yes, these are arrangements of works originally for orchestras or string ensemble, and the Mozart concerto was intended for flute or oboe; but the fact is, these particular pieces really fly and dance in their new clothes, and the musicians performing them are expert enough and serious enough to make us believe in the legitimacy of their approach.
Especially effective is Telemann’s set of little theatrical characterizations, inspired by “figures of the commedia dell’arte”. After a French-style overture come six more movements with titles such as “Scaramouches”, “Harlequinade”, and “Pierrot”. This last is particularly delightful: who says Telemann didn’t have a sense of humor? Guitarist Eliot Fisk delivers another of his usual virtuoso yet always tasteful performances, adding his own cadenzas to a concerto by Weiss, accompanied by an orchestra of baroque mandolins and other baroque and early classical plucked instruments. It’s a wonderful, bright sound with the kind of clear, clean articulation you’d expect from such an ensemble. And if you’re used to the type of new-agey Panflute style popularized by Zamfir in the 1980s, you’ll be surprised to hear Matthias Schlubeck’s performance of Mozart’s concerto in which his sound is virtually identical to that of a classical (wooden) flute player. Franz Richter’s C minor Sinfonia lends itself well to plucked rather than bowed strings, especially its stately second movement (Tempo giusto), and conductor Dieter Kreidler’s arrangement of dances by Italian lutenist/composer Giacomo Gorzanis for mandolins, Panflute, and percussion caps the proceedings with a healthy dash of Neapolitan flavor and color. The sound couldn’t be more natural or better balanced.
