BBC Music Magazine
October 2006
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

Charivari Agréable presents here an unusual programme in which Telemann's music is interspersed by that two of his godsons. Far and away the more famous of them is Bach's second musically talented son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, who followed in his godfather's footsteps as Hamburg's Director musices. The other, Georg Philipp Kress, is now but the faintest of shadows and indeed may never have been otherwise. Charivari Agréable convey the fragile, never more than skin-deep charm of his Flute Trios with lightly applied articulation and an appropriate espirit de salon. These virtues, along with a marked elegance of phrasing, are features which define the performing style of this ensemble. There is a pleasing energy in this playing which is also supple, fluent and idiomatic. The fast movements of Telemann's two fine G major Quartets for flute, two viole di gamba and harpsichord, more effective in this scoring than in Telemann's alternative suggestion for flute and two violins, offer persuasive examples of what I mean.