While recordings of Telemann’s orchestral overtures are not that uncommon, programs devoted exclusively to the overtures he scored for wind quintet are. One reason is that Telemann wrote comparatively fewer overtures for winds, though perhaps the primary explanation is simply that they are far less interesting works. Here Telemann used the term overture in the broadest of ways, meaning simply a collection of light dance movements. The results sound less like the kind of skillfully arranged sequences we normally expect of an overture and more like a rote amalgam of glorified divertimentos.
This is not helped by programming these overtures together (all in the same key no less!) as the Consortium Classicum does here–certainly they never were intended to be heard this way. Alternatively, I enjoyed the way the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin included the overture subtitled “La Chasse” in its recent Telemann recording for Harmonia Mundi, strategically placing it as an interlude between the rousing orchestral Suite “La Musette” and the spirited “Overture jointe d’une suite tragi-comique”. In that context La Chasse becomes a delightful respite (the crisper, more lively performance of the Akademie members notwithstanding). Here, La Chasse begins a program that quickly evolves into a succession of mired predictability. MDG’s sound is fine, as are Ute Poetzsch’s informative notes. For Telemann completists only.
