Le tombeau d’une tipula – Evelyn Nallen, recorder/ David Gordon, harpsichord – Works of BADINGS, GORDON, ROXANNA PANUFNIK, NIGEL BUTTERLEY, HEINRICH POOS, HERBERT MURRILL, CARL RUTTI, RUBBRA, MARTIN SHAW, ALAN LANGFORD – Mister Sam Records

by | Sep 14, 2005 | Classical CD Reviews | 0 comments

Le tombeau d’une tipula – Evelyn Nallen, recorder/ David
Gordon, harpsichord – Works of BADINGS, GORDON, ROXANNA PANUFNIK, NIGEL
BUTTERLEY, HEINRICH POOS, HERBERT MURRILL, CARL RUTTI, RUBBRA, MARTIN
SHAW, ALAN LANGFORD – Mister Sam Records SAMCD002 ****:

This duo has been performing together for some time, but mostly in
improvisations of various sorts. This is the first recording they have
made of written-out contemporary works for recorder and
harpsichord.  The program has plenty of variety and the works
remain in a roughly tonal style. The balance and acoustic distance of
the two instruments is also just right.

Henk Badings was one of the greatest Dutch composers of the last
century. His 12-minute sonata has a big sound for such a little
instrument. Harpsichordist Gordon’s title work of six very short
movements chronicles the life, death and ascension of a daddy-long-legs
spider (tipula in Latin). Ms. Panufnik wrote “Remember” for tenor
recorder, believing it to be the closest in sound to the human
voice.  Her pieces is a loose setting of a short poem by that
title. Poos work is set of ten variations on Greensleeves. Sonatina was
written for Nallen by Swiss composer Rütti. Hearing Keith Jarrett
inspired his first movement, and hearing Irish folk music was the
stimulus for the third movement. Edmund Rubbra’s Passacaglia is one of
several he wrote for recorder pioneer Carl Dolmetsch – also the
recipient of Martin Shaw’s Air & Variations. Hearing accessible
modern music such as this on “ancient” instruments is an acquired but
most enjoyable experience.

– John Sunier

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