The first volume of this series was very well received (1/03), and I had high praise also for Geneviève Soly’s first solo keyboard recording devoted to the composer on the same label (12/03).

Here her own L’Ensemble des Idées heureuses offers two cantatas, a sonata and a full-length suite. Much of the music – hitherto unpublished – is preserved in the Library of Hesse at Darmstadt, where Telemann was also active; so it is hardly surprising to find strong stylistic similarities between the two composers, with Graupner sharing his colleague’s talent for fluid, felicitous invention (the individual movement of the Suite have considerable charm).

The performances are spirited and committed (Hélène Plouffe’s viola d’amore deserves a special mention as the soloist in the Suite), and when the ensemble is joined by the soprano Ingrid Schmithüsen, the experience transcends the sometimes conventional idiom in which the composer moves. (The last piece in the recital, the aria ‘Sprich, mein Herz’, is particularly fine.)

This series looks set to run and run; aficionados of this period surely won’t complain.