ATMA Classique's Natrually Series features great performances of great music in eco-friendly packaging.
CD Reviews
Don't Let the Dorky Cover Dissuade You!
Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 08/29/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Notice instead the highly enticing Price!
Telemann is the patron saint of the 'Recorder'. His music for recorder - both as a concertizing instrument and as an obbligato in large-scale works - is of such excellence that it's hard to comprehend why the instrument fell into disuse. If your previous conception of the recorder is of a plastic whistle used to torment the parents of elementary schoolers, this is a CD you MUST hear! The recorder playing of Matthias Maute (Ensemble Caprice) and Francis Colpron (Les Boreades) is awesome. Intimidating. Extraterrestrial. I've never heard a more virtuosic performance.
By the way, "flute a bec" is French for 'recorder,' in case you don't know that.
The Cantata "Seele, lerne dich erkennen" - tracks 15-17 - uses the recorder for an absolutely torrential obbligato accompaniment of the voice. Soprano Monica Mauch delivers one of her finest performances ever, perfectly tuned and balanced, eloquently phrased and decorated. Mauch can sometimes sound almost defiantly "white" in timbre - 'white' meaning countertenorish, without a trace of vibrato. Here she modulates her powerful straight tone with sprightly, coquettish delicacy.
When is "charm" not synonymous with superficiality? Listen to this performance and learn."
Track Listings (21) - Disc #1