Telemann, Don Quixotte Burlesque Suite

 
The composer Georg Philipp Telemann, the most significant representative of the North German school during the first half of the 18th century, was capable of writing a four-part motet with the same ease an ordinary person writes a letter. At least, this is what his young friend Handel — four years younger than Telemann — told him, whom he met in Leipzig when, under family pressure, Telemann began law studies that he would soon abandon.

A self-taught musician
Born in 1681 in Magdeburg, a city in western Germany, on the banks of the Elbe, Georg Philipp came from a family with a strong Protestant tradition, several of whose members had been pastors. His first training was humanistic and very broad: when he was just a boy, he wrote verses in Latin, German and French. His musical training, on the other hand, has a weak base in the period in which he had to attend the cathedral school where he attended the teachings of a composer of ecclesiastical music and also a keyboard course which, interestingly enough, lasted exactly fourteen days.

The fact remains, however, that at the age of ten Georg Philipp played the flute, violin and other instruments with mastery. On the basis of the direct study of the scores of the great composers of the time, the young Telemann soon began to compose his own pieces. 

Georg P. Telemann
(1681 - 1767)

An extensive catalog
Throughout his life, the catalog of this self-taught composer was going to acquire gigantic dimensions, far surpassing, for example, the work of Vivaldi. He cultivated all kinds of genres: operas, religious cantatas and psalms, passions, oratorios, profane cantatas, and much more, to which a large number of pieces of vocal and instrumental music is added.

A great naturalness distinguishes Telemann's music, which allows it to easily reach a wide audience. The composer argued that the musician who wanted to reach a large audience should write better than one who addresses a select minority. A good example of this maxim is represented by the suite inspired by Don Quixote.

Don Quixotte Burlesque Suite
During his last years, Telemann was strongly attracted by the spirit of Cervantes's work, to the point that it served as inspiration for an opera and, from it, a Suite for string orchestra and basso continuo, known as Don Quixotte Burlesque.

Light in character, almost humorous, the Suite includes seven movements or sections:

00:00  Ouverture
03:55  Le reveille de Quixotte (The awakening of Don Quixote)
06:58  Son attaque des moulens a vent (The attack on the windmills)
08:44  Les soupirs amoureux apres la Princesse Dulcinèe (Sighs of love for Dulcinea)
12:38  Sanche Panche berné (Sancho Panza disappointed)
14:22  Le galop de Rosinante alternat, avec sequent (The gallop of Rocinante)
16:59  La couché de Quixotte (Don Quixote's dream)

The rendition, performed with period instruments, is by the New York Baroque Incorporated chamber group.