The Trio Sonata in 18th-century Germany

London Baroque has been building a library of recordings that comprehensively survey the baroque trio sonata across time and place. This latest addition covers Germany in the eighteenth century, charting a course through the municipal churches and aristocratic courts which patronised the arts. In addition to Telemann, two of J. S. Bach’s sons are represented – Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christoph Friedrich – as are the lesser-known composers Goldberg, Fasch and Graun. Ensemble and phrasing throughout is well honed, while the appropriateness of using vibrato in this repertoire is moot. The most textural variation is to be found in the Telemann trio, which incorporates a viola da gamba in lieu of a second violin, and in the Largo and Allegro of the C. P. E. Bach, which sound distinctly Mozartian at points.

Nicholas Bown Read the full review on Agora Classica