Search - Bart de Kemp, Tore Bjorn Larsen, Daan Manneke :: Sitting Ducks

Good Sampling of Modern Recorder Music

Christopher Forbes | Brooklyn,, NY | 06/12/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The recorder gets a bum rap in America. It an instrument most often associated with elementary school music, where it is used to "prepare you for a real instrument". It's a shame really, because the sound of a good recorder ensemble is quite beautiful and deserving of wider interest by contemporary composers.This offering by the Dutch based SIRENA quartet is an interesting affair. It focuses mostly on Dutch composers with a nod to one of the most prolific composers for recorder, Ryohei Hirose. The works vary in quality from the frivolous, but fun (Sitting Ducks) to the sublime (Jakobsstigen). The composers on the disk do not share a particular aesthetic bent. Some music is highly 12 note, and some is almost archaic. The Hirose compositions in particular are eclectic. Lamentation is serial in it's organization, but with touches of the shakuhachi. On the other hand, Idyll 1 and Ode I are almost medieval and very beautiful pieces. The Meijering piece that gives the CD it's title is alot of fun...minimalist and yet not repetitious...and much more harmonically adventurous than most minimalism. Performances are expert. The Sirena quartet has control of a wide range of timbral effects and if precise in intonation and ensemble. If their rendition of Hirose's Idyll I misses the sustained improvisatory exstasy of the Flanders Quartet, the inclusion of more twentieth century music more than makes up for this. A good solid release. Recommended for recorder fans or people interested in new music for rare ensembles."