 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Press & Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |
Rare indeed is a recording of early music that allows the dulcian (thebassoon's Renaissance forebear) and the trombone to appear in starring rather than supporting roles. Almost equally rare is a programme consisting largely of pieces by virtually unknown composers but in which the musical interest and quality remain uniformly high. This captivating collection of 17th-century solos and ensembles for cornett, dulcian and trombone qualifies on both counts. The dulcian sonatas by Giovanni Antonio Bertoli and Philipp Friedrich Böddecker use variation forms to allow the instrument to show off the expressive beauty of its attractively woody sound and its ability to throw off passages of mind-boggling virtuosity, while intricately ornamented versions of a Palestrina motet and a madrigal by Cipriano da Rore allow the listener to bask in the cornett's flexible, glowing sound. The ensemble pieces, including a smoothly flowing polyphonic sonata by Rosenmuller, and Bartolomeo de Selma y Salaverde's delightfully playful canzona Est-ce Mars, produce some deliciously piquant instrumental sonorities, and the playing throughout has a crisp and lively freshness that makes this disc particularly appealing. Elizabeth Roche The Daily Telegraph, UK "CD of the Week July 2006 ****************************************************************************************** | ||
| | |