»Barbarische Schönheit« / »Barbaric Beauty«

As a young band master, Georg Philipp Telemann was employed by Count Erdmann von Promnitz and wrote many orchestral suites and overtures for him. While at the court in Sorau, Telemann not only learnt the French court music, but also the everyday music in taverns and villages, where he encountered Polish and Moravian folklore.

The way these rural musicians improvised appealed to Telemann’s own tempestuous temperament. He praised them, saying »one would hardly believe that such horn pipers and fiddlers could express such wonderful ideas. An attentive person can catch enough inspiration from these players in a mere eight days to last a life time«. The young court composer praised the »true barbaric beauty« of this wild performance style. In doing so, he gave us the leitmotif for this concert, 300 years later. It will combine the music of Telemann and his contemporaries as a colourful mélange of courtly, rural and tavern atmospheres.