Stuttgart-based publisher Carus-Verlag specializes in performing editions of previously unpublished German sacred music prepared from original manuscripts. With the worklist of German Baroque master Georg Philipp Telemann running to over 2,900 items, it is safe to say that Telemann alone could keep Carus-Verlag busy for quite some time. The Carus disc Perpetuum Mobile is a showcase for previously unrecorded Telemann editions that Carus has printed, performed expertly by the Bathasar-Neumann-Chor under the leadership of Han Tol.
Perpetuum Mobile provides a glimpse of Telemann's variety of approaches within a cube calved from the huge iceberg that represents his output. Stylistic consistency was not Telemann's hallmark; unlike Johann Sebastian Bach, he did not frequently return to his music to refine old ideas -- it was easier to write new ones. The newly published material on Perpetuum Mobile consists of three sacred cantatas and a suite (i.e., "overture") for strings, filled out with a couple of his flute quartets, both of the latter being crisp and well-modulated readings; the Quartet in A minor, TWV 43:a3, will already be familiar to most Telemaniacs. The cantata for Epiphany Hier ist mein Herz, geliebter Jesu, TWV 1:795, is one of Telemann's finest sacred cantatas realized in his best French-styled idiom, with a wide-ranging harmonic palette not altogether different from Bach. It is beautifully performed on Perpetuum Mobile, with some particularly striking singing from soprano
Dorothee Mields. The other two cantatas are good, but less interesting, with the setting, one of three by Telemann, of Ach, Herr, strafe mich nicht in deinem Zorn wandering into a realm of cheap sentiment as a bathetic oboe sighs and literally weeps to the text "I am so weary with crying." The best parts of the overture Perpetuum Mobile more than make up for Telemann's momentary lapse of taste, with the title movement sounding like a Baroque version of
Terry Riley and the "Tourbillon" piece being appropriately "turbulent," a rare tip of the hat from Telemann to the example set by Antonio Vivaldi. Perpetuum Mobile is unconditionally recommended to listeners who wish to get a grip on the many-sided enigma that is Telemann.