Florilegium here complete their cycle of Telemann's 'Paris' Quartets – actually a set of six quartet sonatas composed in Hamburg in 1730 but popular in France after their publication there, and a second set of six with which the canny Telemann followed them up while in Paris in 1738. This release contains three works from the second set and one from the first.
The quartets have become among the most popular pieces in the Baroque chamber repertoire, so there is no need to rehearse their qualities here, save to reiterate that their beguiling, convivial style is about as comfortably civilised as it gets.
Florilegium's performances mix technical and musical finesse in equal measure and observe every expressive and rhetorical nuance with a delicious light touch. Theirs is not the chiselled precision and up-front high energy of some modernday Baroque chamber groups, but their playing is unfailingly alive and the details of their elegant conversation are well captured in a recorded balance in which no instrument is allowed undue dominance. The chaconne which ends the sixth quartet, TWV43:e4, is exquisitely drawn out, there are some charming drone effects here and there, and overall it is difficult to know what else to add – only, perhaps, that in their mutual refinement and good taste, Florilegium and Telemann could have been made for each other.

The quartets have become among the most popular pieces in the Baroque chamber repertoire… Florilegium's performances mix technical and musical finesse in equal measure and observe every expressive and rhetorical nuance with a delicious light touch. …in their mutual refinement and good taste, Florilegium and Telemann could have been made for each other.