Alongside his success directing the ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor has not let up on demonstrating his talents as a violinist. After the recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas the 12 Fantasias by Georg Philipp Telemann present him again completely “a solo”. Telemann’s Fantasias for Solo Violin are reflections both of his full maturity as a composer and of being highly proficient violinist himself, with the exceptionally prolific and enormously busy composer publishing sets of fantasias for solo instruments – flute, viola da gamba as well as violin – without basso continuo in Hamburg in the 1730s. The 12 Fantasias recorded here are written for an unaccompanied instrument and manage to embrace both the long established style for polyphony in German violin music – with fugues and multi-part writing for the violin – and more modern trends – galanterien and Italian sonata and concerto influences. Gunar Letzbor plays a Sebastian Klotz violin from the eighteenth century. © Pan Classics