Flanders Recorder Duo

My writings in this column are colored by finally having my first face-to-face recorder duo rehearsal in more than a year. While Jamkazam software served us well, and will continue to, David Barnett and I (Three Trapped Tigers) thoroughly enjoyed listening and sounding together in person. It seems highly appropriate that in this review column, I discuss the first CD release by the Flanders Recorder Duo, as well as Rodney Waterman’s CD, in which he integrates solo improvisation with adept use of technology.The Flanders Recorder Quartet (FRQ) was such a powerful force that many of us felt sadness at their decision to stop their work as a quartet. Happily, two of the FRQ, Tom Beets and Joris Van Goethem, have re-turned as the Flanders Recorder Duo (FR2) and in the midst of the pandemic have released a self-titled CD. In this recording we hear a survey of music played with virtuosity, polish, sincerity and humor—and most importantly, with deeply en-gaged and engaging musicianship. The disc contains 16 compositions (28 tracks), ranging from Medieval (track 15, “A que por mui gran Fremsura” from the Cantigas de Santa Maria) through Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic periods, to works commissioned by FR2 (track 22, The Dervish and the Devil, a 2019 work by Sören Sieg; and track 21, Slingshot, 2020, by ARS Members’ LibraryEditions editor Glen Shannon).

FR2 devises an order for the music on this recording to provide a satisfying listening sequence, much as one might hope to hear in a perfor-mance. In this variety of music we can perceive connections and contrasts among the styles and across the centuries. While some of the music was created for recorders, other works are adeptly adapted by Beets and Van Goethem, as well as by others. They note, “Recorder players are renowned for stealing music from other instruments to transcribe or arrange for recorder.” Likely the most surprising example is track 8 (Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in d minor, BWV565). To survey the range of possibilities for recorder duo, they include Nik Tarasov’s arrangement of Stefan Franz’s Grand Duo, a 19th-century work originally for csakan, a keyed duct flute then popular in Austria and Eastern Europe. It seems useful to note that the Medieval and Renaissance works on this disc translate marvelously for recorders, but weren’t composed specifically for recorders, having their origins instead as vocal music. The last track on the disc, Marc Mellits’ Black, is a tour de force adaptation for two great bass recorders of a work originally for bass clarinets.Instrumentation includes 20 different recorders and also a Renaissance flute, a whistle, kalimba (a modern popularization of an old African “thumb piano” instrument), two cajons (Peruvian box-shaped percussion instruments), and a set of bamboo pipes. Those pipes are employed in the world premiere recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s 1933 Suite for Two Pipes (tracks 9-13). (Vaughan Williams was the president of the UK’s Pipers’ Guild, an office held now by Van Goethem. The composer noted in a letter from 1937, “I am much interested in the English Pipers’ Guild but I am not so interested in ecorders”—although Vaughan Wil-liams later created several works for recorders.)A drone box, kalimba and Renaissance flute bring a fresh and exotic sound to Stella splendens (track 14). The cajons appear in Sieg’s commissioned work (track 22) to great effect. In Shannon’s Slingshot (track 21), the composer creates a resonant and energetic sound world for bass and contra bass recorders.The recordings for this disc were made in August 2020 in the reverberant acoustics of the Stiftskirche in Kyllburg, Germany. Of particular interest to AR readers is the availability for purchase from the ensemble’s web site of most of the duet scores on this recording. The CD booklet provides the essential details of a list of instruments with indication of who plays which instrument on each track. The essays convey interesting details about both the music, the concept of the recording, and the performers. Aeolus thoughtfully provides text in English, German, Dutch, Japanese and Chinese, and the photographs by Debby Termonia and Koen Beets enhance the attractive booklet design.Please note that other than a few sample tracks on the FR2 and Aeolus web sites, this recording is not available via streaming services or for download. To enjoy this FR2 release, you’ll need to order directly from FR2 or Aeolus. That extra effort is absolutely worth it!

REVIEWED BY TOM BICKLEY, American Recorder Fall 2021