What did this German composer get up to in Paris?
UncategorizedIn an eight-month stay in Paris in 1737-8, Georg Philipp Telemann changed his style, his mood, the very character of his music.
What on earth was going on in his life?
A selection of Telemann’s Paris music is my Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com.
It’s remarkable that Telemann continued to develop and extend his compositional style right through to the end of his career. His final works include elegant rococo pieces in an urbane French style.
He’s a composer we need to hear more. His German operas – written for the Goosemarket Theatre in Hamburg – knocked spots off anything else in Germany at the time. He remained a lifelong penfriend of Handel, and the two exchanged scores. Handel used to send Telemann exotic plant seedlings and cuttings, since he knew Telemann collected such plants.