Virtuoso Baroque

Fans of Michala Petri will need little persuading to acquire this album. Lars Hannibal is also a known quantity for his fine recordings. With this release the Petri/Hannibal duo celebrate twenty years of music-making, having given their first appeared on stage in 1991. The highly virtuoso playing of Michala Petri soars unrestrained over lightly plucked harmonies.

Beautifully recorded in general, this is also a well chosen program of pieces. The famous variations of Corelli’s La Folia are a central masterpiece of the repertoire, and the bravura display in this piece echoes that of Vitali’s Chaconne in G minor, which is a stunning opening to the album. Both movingly expressive and technically impressive both as a composition as in performance.

Petri mixes up her instruments to a certain extent. So there is variation in color of sound to be had in the lower instruments used for instance in the Grave of Telemann’s Sonata in D minor, and the Vivaldi Pastorale from the Sonata in G major. This latter work is now known to be a forgery by Nicolas Chédeville, a well known musician and instrument-maker, whose subterfuge resulted in ‘Vivaldi’s’ Il pastor fido Op. 13. This is fine music, and fits in well with the other pieces despite being something of a Cuckoo’s egg in terms of authenticity.

Familiar flute pieces like J.S. Bach’s Sonata in F major BWV 1033 work very well here, with the chains of sixteenth notes of the Presto something of a tour de force. Petri improvises some extra ornamental lines in the Adagio, but is effective within the idiom, and not going beyond the boundaries of believable contemporary practice. Another familiar piece is Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” Sonata in G minor, more specifically for violin, but with some touches of expressive vibrato and superb dexterity very effective on Petri’s recorder, in particular in the literally breathtaking central Allegro. Handel’s urbane Sonata in B flat is a perfect close to a very fine recital.

This is a fine album which will provide great pleasure to recorder fans, showing us all the standards to which we humble amateurs can merely aspire.