GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN Twelve Fantasies for solo recorder. Sonata for solo viola da gamba Marion Verbruggen, Mary Springfels

Composing for a single instrument presents an interesting challenge to the composer. The music must be distilled down to its barest essentials, yet provide an optimum range of colour and variety. Telemann, that most versatile and prolific of early eighteenth-century composers, met this challenge nobly, writing music in multifarious styles and moods- French and Polish dances, even one-voice fugues for the flute, and a recitative with accompaniment for the gamba- which exploits the entire expressive and technical range of the instruments.