A Gift for your Garden

Join Ensemble Hesperi for a celebration of 18th-century horticultural gift-giving through the music of Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) and his colleagues.

PROGRAMME
Oswald Airs for Spring: ‘The Anemone’
Telemann 6 Quadri, Sonata I, TWV 43: A1
Oswald Airs for the Spring: ‘The Hyacinth’
Handel Trio Sonata in B minor HWV 386b
Telemann Sonata for Solo Cello TWV 41: D6 in D
Graun Trio Sonata in D, WV Cv:XV: 99
Telemann Trio sonate g-moll, TWV 42: g9

Telemann, who was one of the most prolific composers of all time, had a much-envied garden attached to his Hamburg residence, on which he lavished a great deal of attention. Always searching for new and unusual specimens, he wrote on many occasions to his good friend George Frideric Handel in London, asking for plants from England. ‘I am insatiable’, he wrote, ‘where hyacinths and tulips are concerned, greedy for ranunculi, and especially for anemones.’

In a letter to another good friend, Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach: ‘While music is my field and plough, and serves to give me many of my keenest pleasures, over the past few years I have found a new companion, namely the love of flowers.’ Telemann’s garden was so famous that in 1742 a list of his plants was collated and has survived to the present day.

The music on A Gift for your Garden celebrates Telemann’s horticultural friendships, and the joy to be found in the giving and receiving of flowers. In his enthusiasm for horticulture, Telemann was just one of countless well-to-do individuals embracing a craze for botany sweeping 18th-century Europe. Telemann’s new hobby was certainly no idle passion, and he was energetic in cultivating his collection, often begging his friends and correspondents to send him specimens.

The Scottish composer, James Oswald, was also no stranger to the mid-18th-century craze for plants, publishing two collections of Airs for the Seasons, each named after a flower or plant. His illustrious patron, Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Augusta, had an impressive collection of exotic plants at Kew Palace, now Kew Gardens.

Our programme presents a cornucopia of music by Telemann, including a sonata and a suite from his famous Paris Quartets, and sparkling trio sonatas by Handel and Graun, from whom Telemann received horticultural gifts - all framed by charming airs depicting the plants he loved best.

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