A love for Telemann – Chamber music and cantatas

Georg Philipp Telemann

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) was one of the most prolific and versatile composers of the Baroque era, a German musician whose reputation in his own lifetime rivalled that of his contemporaries and friends Bach and Handel. Largely self-taught against the wishes of a family that discouraged a musical career, he studied law at Leipzig University before turning decisively to composition. He went on to hold posts in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach and Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where for the rest of his life he served as music director of the city's five principal churches. Telemann mastered a wide range of instruments and absorbed French, Italian, German and Polish idioms into a personal "mixed style" that helped bridge the late Baroque and the emerging galant taste of the mid-eighteenth century. 

His surviving output, estimated at around 3,000 works, includes cantatas, orchestral suites, concertos and chamber music of remarkable variety and craftsmanship. An early advocate for composers' intellectual property rights, he also exerted considerable influence on younger musicians, including the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach. Although later generations dismissed him as merely prolific, twentieth-century scholarship restored his standing as a major architect of German Baroque music.

Ensemble C4

 Ensemble C4 is a Norwegian baroque ensem ble founded by the three musicians Caroline Eidsten Dahl (recorder), Daniel Sæther (coun ter-tenor) and Ingrid Økland (baroque violin). The repertoire includes both early music and new music, and the ensemble has developed several regular concert productions with which they have toured in the last years. 

In recent years, the ensemble has increasingly received commissions and collaborated with major players in the Norwegian music scene. The ensemble has received funding from Arts Council Norway since 2015. They had their international concert debut in August 2024, with a tour to the Venice and Trentino regions in Italy. Since 2020, the ensemble has col laborated with the Norwegian composer Knut Vaage, and has premiered several of his works for countertenor and baroque ensemble. 

Ensemble C4, with its extensive concert ex perience and skilful interplay between the musicians, has developed a playful and virtu oso style. In January 2024, the ensemble’s first CD, G. F. Händel’s Neun Deutsche Arien, was released on LAWO Classics. A Love for Telemann is the ensemble’s second CD release.  

Daniel Sæther

Countertenor Daniel Sæther studied at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (2005-2010) and the Royal Academy in Den Haag (2010-2011). He has performed as a countertenor in Norway and abroad since 2011, including concerts in Sweden, Italy, Spain, England, Vietnam and Brazil, with a wide-ranging repertoire from early music to contemporary.

In Norway he often appears as soloist and ensemble singer, both in concert settings and opera. In the autumn of 2019 Sæther had a singing engagement at the National Theatre in its production of Forelska i Shakespeare based on the film Shakespeare in Love and received glowing reviews in the Norwegian press for his contribution. From 2018-2020 he was awarded the government grant Statens Arbeidsstipend to work with contemporary music for countertenor on baroque instruments and document this in concerts and recordings.

Sæther is a founding member of Ensemble Freithoff and Ensemble C4, both of which perform chamber music in Norway with a focus on Renaissance and Baroque music. In 2020, Sæther released the album Unexpected Songs (LWC1204) for which he was nominated as Singer of the Year at the German Opus Klassik awards in 2021. His second solo album in 2022, Vintersong (LWC1236), achieved nominations in four categories.