Telemann: Complete Cantatas, Vol. 3 Annemarie Pfahler, Lieselotte Fink, Carlos Negrin Lopez, Klaus Mertens, Kathrin Lorenzen, Julie Grut

Six dozen is half a gross. And Georg Philipp Telemann composed that many cantatas for the Frankfurt Church Year of 1714/15. cpo, Felix Koch, the Gutenberg Soloists and the Neumeyer Consort have taken up the cause to record this so-called "French church year" in its entirety – a mighty project that is all the more impressive given that the creative spirit behind these scores never worked en gros. Although he usually limited his instrumentation to two oboes, strings and basso continuo, adding a flute, bassoon, horns, trumpets and timpani for special Sundays or festive occasions, the composer's talent for orchestration was evidently boundless. He finds the appropriate sounds for his musical "sermon" on every theological topic. Every subject determined by the church calendar is reflected in his own individual way with a range of expression from the contemplative to the theatrical – and we are only one-third of the way through this fascinating journey.