Search - Giovanni Battista Fontana, Francesco Barsanti, Georg Philipp Telemann :: Clas Pehrsson

High-Pitched Recorders

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 05/22/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Clas Pehrsson Performs Recorder Music by Fontana, Barsanti, Telemann, van Eyck, Castello and Frescobaldi. Clas Pehrsson, discant and treble recorders; Bengt Ericson, baroque cello; Anders Öhrwall, harpsichord; Thomas Schuback, harpsichord and organ; Maria Wieslander, organ; Kari Ottesen, baroque cello; Tommie Andersson, theorbo.

Recorded in February and May 1976 at Tyresö Church in Sweden and in April 1982 at the Petrus Church in Stocksund and the Johannes Church in Stockholm, Sweden.

Originally released on LP in 1976 and 1982. This CD compilation was released in 1994 as BIS CD-48. Total time: 57'37".



Former violinist Clas Pehrsson appears to have become embroiled in a passionate love affair with the recorder, the picture on the front cover of this CD (showing him with a whole set of recorders) being symptomatic. And if you share something of his passion for the humble recorder you will no doubt find plenty to enjoy on this disc, a compilation of recordings made with various chamber music partners (and three solo pieces) from 1976 and 1982. The fact that the two halves of the CD were recorded some six years apart is evident in the sound: from track 12 (Castello) onwards the sound is considerably more present, and you may want to turn the volume down: personally, I found the first half of the CD to be more pleasant listening, with the high-pitched recorders that Clas Pehrsson plays rather better balanced out with the baroque instruments, but that may be a question of taste. Like most recorder players, Pehrsson seems to have been always on the lookout for repertoire, and in fact some of the pieces on this recording were not actually intended for the instrumental combination that he plays them with: The piece by Fontana (early 17th century) was given the title "for the violin or cornet, bassoon, chittarone, violoncino or similar other instrument", for example. But some of Pehrsson's experiments, e. g. playing Frescobaldi's Toccata with both harpsichord and organ, or having the continuo of Telemann's Trio Sonata played by cello and theorbo while the recorder and the harpsichord play the melody, are well worth hearing and demonstrate the versatility of his instrument. My only caveat is that Pehrsson used only high-pitched discant and treble recorders for this recording, something that is at times severe on the ears and, with a playing time of nearly an hour, can be a little too much of a good thing, making me long for the combination of discant and treble with larger low-pitched instruments as on Pehrsson's previous release with his ensemble Musica Dolce (with a picture of all five musicians carrying a sub-contra-bass recorder that must be about six feet long!). Nevertheless, compliments to BIS for producing this CD and keeping it on the market for many years.

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