Search - Francois Devienne, Island :: François Devienne: 3 Quatuors, Op. 73

Possibly the best Original Bassoon recording you will find

M. Ramshaw | 07/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The modern bassoon has well-rounded sound, perhaps best illustrated by Dag Jensen.



In this recording we get to hear a much more diverse tonality, with buzzes and low

tones that can be hard to hear. The good news is that this period bassoon presents

fewer problems to the recording process, as it seems to produce less of what I will

refer to as 'instrument noise'.



I said unflattering things about Devienne's music in another review. One thing

he did extremely well was to integrate the different voices of each instrument.

With strings and winds this presents a particular challenge which this recording

illustrates well. As recorded, the bassoon part is completely over-shadowed by the

strings. Once I adjusted the volume so that the bassoon had an equal voice in the

proceedings I was no longer infuriated by the string parts.



The instruments are all period (or perhaps reproductions) and sound wonderful. For

this recording they have gone back to Devienne's performing notes, complete with

heavy performance annotations. The good news here is that Devienne was a master

of this bassoon and either incorporated or made allowance for its deficiencies.

So we have rather unique music for an extremely difficult instrument as recorded

by a modern virtuoso and specialist of this instrument, accompanied by very fine

musicians also with period instruments.



Very little music illustrates the unique qualities of the bassoon, its potential

as a solo instrument or its capacity to express things such as understated longing

and wistfulness. This recording shows how it can express these like no other

instrument. The bassoon has been the (sack)butt of many jokes. I hope that

recordings such as this one illustrate that it is truly worth taking seriously.



Voluminous liner notes for this excellent recording show that it was truly a labour

of love for all involved. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the bassoon."