“Lully is admired, Corelli lets himself be praised; only Telemann is above all praise”. This is an indication, by a contemporary critic, of how highly prized Telemann was in his own time. Yet until recently his phenomenal productivity of works for every conceivable occasion was dismissed as “worthless scribbling”. The three Darmstadt Overtures illustrate Telemann's skill in combining the “lively” and “audacious” elements of Italian taste with the contrapuntal legacy of his native Germany.