Paul Dessau composed more than 450 works from all the genres, but scarcely a single one of them continues to meet with recognition and representation in today's concert world. The musicians of the Ensemble Avantgarde decided to change this with an impressive overview of the chamber oeuvre of this composer. The young Dessau celebrated great successes with his Concertino in the unusual instrumentation for solo violin with flute, clarinet, and horn already in 1925 and even won a composition prize for it. Dessau himself actually wanted to become a violinist, and Gewandhaus concertmaster Andreas Seidel masters with bravura what at times is a wildly virtuosic solo part.
Landscapes, whether real or imagined have been a recurring theme in the chamber music of Judith Bingham, performed here by the internationally renowned Chamber Domaine and the supremely talented Korean soprano Yeree Suh.
…Celebrated German label MDG have assembled a fine and varied chamber music programme of four movement concertos and sonatas plus an overture which shows off the composer in some of his finest and most varied colours and textures. Listeners unfamiliar with Telemann can comfort themselves as each and every one of the works contained here has expressive charm in abundance and sustained musical interest. No bland and plodding keyboard continuo here. (…) Telemann’s strength and depth in these chamber compositions is never in doubt and with consistently fine playing from the Ensemble Musica Alta Ripa this is certainly a worthy release.