Telemann: 12 Fantasias for solo violin

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Thomas Bowes - violin; Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767); © 2021 Navona Records LLC

Tom: “I was wrong-footed by the COVID lockdown of 2020. With a great deal of spare time and no pressing performance engagements, I started looking for a project that might turn this unexpected situation to my advantage. At first the answer was horticulture, but when I tired of working in my garden, I began to ponder a more artistic challenge.

As with many violinists, a copy of the Telemann fantasias had resided on my shelves for years. This thin volume had been opened from time to time and the twelve short works played through...but then abandoned with a feeling of frustration that these immensely appealing and characterful pieces weren’t nearly as easy as they ought to be.

As I pondered my big lockdown project, I reached for these fantasias again as part of my early-morning practice. While playing them, I was certain I could make mental space to contemplate the big endeavour, whatever that might be. Once again, I told myself that the fantasias would be light relief. None of the individual pieces even needed a page to be turned. However, as the days of the lockdown ticked over, I discovered that things were not so simple. Perhaps, my big project was actually staring right back at me? Possibly even with something of a knowing smirk...”

Navona Records: “Pondering the Baroque violin repertoire, one would be forgiven to think of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works and little else. Acclaimed English violinist Thomas Bowes courageously sets out to change this preconceived notion with TELEMANN FANTASIAS, a rare and remarkable full performance of all of Georg Philipp Telemann’s solo violin fantasias.

Telemann is to violinists what Mozart is to keyboard players: deceptively simple on paper, notoriously difficult to master in actuality. Bowes, never a stranger to a challenging repertoire, expertly articulates the cheer, spirit, and zest of these pieces with a strikingly light-hearted panache, as if it could be no different. Indeed, upon listening to this rendition, it is easy to imagine a future in which public performances of Bach’s pious partitas are habitually rounded off by Telemann’s buoyant secular fantasias.

For Bowes, this future is now.”

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“Bowes is as clearly versed in baroque style as was Arthur Grumiaux, the fantasias most illustrious champion on disc” - Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times