Telemann: Complete Tafelmusik

Georg Philipp Telemann’s Musique de table (or, in German, Tafelmusik) is exactly what its name suggests: a collection of instrumental pieces for varying ensembles written to accompany a dinner or feast. It consists of 18 sonatas, trios, quartets, and concertos organized into three “productions,” and on this very fine recording by the Freiburger Barockorchester it fills four CDs. Telemann’s trademark expressiveness and melodic invention are on full display here, and the group plays beautifully. This is by no means challenging or particularly innovative music — though the pieces written for quartet are somewhat forward-looking — but it is consistently highly enjoyable.