Vivace alla Francese. From the Giedde collection, excerpted in The Baroque Solo Book. Johann Joachim Quantz, 1697-1773, was a German flute maker, player and composer. He was considered one of the finest flute players in Europe, and wrote a famous treatise, “ersuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversière zu spielen” (1752), which is a valuable resource today on baroque performance practice and flute technique.
Another piece from my concert on 3/19/06, with Emily O’Brien (recorder) and Miyuki Tsurutani (organ).
Dario Castello (15??-1630?). This piece is a lovely example of 16th century italian canzona style. This style is really a genre of its own. It starts with a completely characteristic half note-quarter-quarter rhythm and the two recorders keep up a merry chase. There are dramatic tempo and mood shifts throughout.
A note on the organ, we (luckily) managed a rehearsal in the performance space the day before, which was good because Miyuki had not played that particular organ before in an ensemble and she got a suprise–the lag between hitting the keys and when the sound came out of the pipes on the other end of the room was a good quarter second. Brings the concept of anticipating the beat to new levels. She did a fabulous job in the performance.
The next movement in the Barsanti sonata from the concert on 3/19/06
Jean Daniel Braun, 16??-1740?. Very little information about him, I’ll have to look more.
This piece is out of The Baroque Solo Book, a must-have compilation of pieces that sit well on the alto recorder.
Recorded this at home. It’s very interesting, how different this experience was both from live concert recording, and from studio recording. None of the tension of live performance, it’s extremely freeing to know that if I mess up I can just do another take. On the other hand, it makes me much more critical of the recording. Also, there are a lot of outside things going on–turn off the fridge, dont do laundry or dishes, pray that the furnace doesnt decide to kick in (I suppose I could have turned the thermostat way down…), and of course there are birds and dogs and neighbor’s trucks. And an extremely patient and understanding husband (dont make any sounds at all for the next hour or so dear, I’m recording!). Visions of sound studios danced in her head….Played a bit with reverb (too much, perhaps), and actually ended up splicing two of the takes together. Learning….