Telemann, Viola Concerto in G Major

Since Professor Carol was answering a question about Telemann yesterday, why not turn to him for this week’s Friday Performance Pick?

It’s hard to think about Georg Phillipp Telemann (1681-1767) without making comparisons to J.S. Bach. Telemann was just four years older than Bach, and their careers intersected many times. Born in Magdeburg, Telemann went to study law in Leipzig in 1701. While there, he founded an ensemble known as Collegium Musicum whose purpose was to give public concerts, a new phenomenon at the time. Bach would later take an interest in the Leipzig concert scene (and the coffee houses) and direct that Collegium Musicum.

In fact, Bach went to Leipzig for his last professional post as Kapellmeister at the St. Thomas Church in 1723. But that post was first offered to Telemann, who was quite a bit higher in the professional pecking order of the time. Bach got the job after Telemann declined it.

Telemann also held a position early in his career as Konzertmeister in Eisenach, Bach’s hometown, at about the time Bach was leaving his lesser post near Eisenach to work in Weimar.

Telemann produced a great deal of music, both sacred and secular. He spent the bulk of his career in Hamburg, first as director at the five major churches there and later as director of the Hamburg opera. He would enjoy a long friendship with another opera composer, also born at about the same time: Georg Frederic Handel.

If you have studied the “Stations of Bach,” tracking Bach’s music through the types of jobs he held in various places, you could do the same thing with Telemann. It would make an interesting study.