The adoption of wide-ranging repertoire by recorder players rolls on with this disc of music by Henry Purcell, who worked in an environment where the recorder was certainly used (often by Purcell himself) and where music of various types was certainly arranged for it. That said, the recorder quartet, here an English group called the Flautadors, was probably never used for the music here -- recorders were added to ensembles with other wind or stringed instruments. Does playing Purcell on recorders work? Several kinds of ...
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The adoption of wide-ranging repertoire by recorder players rolls on with this disc of music by Henry Purcell, who worked in an environment where the recorder was certainly used (often by Purcell himself) and where music of various types was certainly arranged for it. That said, the recorder quartet, here an English group called the Flautadors, was probably never used for the music here -- recorders were added to ensembles with other wind or stringed instruments. Does playing Purcell on recorders work? Several kinds of Purcell pieces are included on the program, and some work better than others -- to use the terminology of the title, the Ayres work better than the Phantasies or Chaconnies. All the music was originally for strings, but it varied in function. Some was for the theater; the two "theatre suites" compile tunes by Locke and Purcell, mostly from dramatic works, into short sequences. These work very nicely on recorders, coming out something like the arrangements of Handel's Water Music that...
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