Peter Hope’s delightful Recorder
Concerto perfectly lives up
to its subtitle Birthday Concerto;
it was composed as a 60th
birthday tribute to John Turner. The
music skips along with joyfulness and
uninhibited lyricism, and ends with
a happily dancing Tarantella. As in
some of the other pieces heard here,
it calls for the whole recorder family:
treble and descant recorders in the
Prelude, bass and sopranino recorders
in the central Intermezzo. The Hope
is the real gem in this selection.
By comparison - and
in spite of its slightly humorous title
- David Beck’s Flûte-à-Beck
is a more serious, often understated
piece cast in a more stringent idiom.
It too calls for the whole recorder
family. It is substantial and does not
yield all its secrets at once. Similarly
Gál’s attractive Concertino
Op.82 composed in 1961 for the
composer’s daughter. It is scored for
string orchestra, but may also be performed
with string quartet. Again, this is
a superbly crafted and very attractive
piece.
David Ellis’s Divertimento
Elegiaco Op.54 was originally
written for so-called baroque trio (recorder,
cello and harpsichord) as recorded in
An Image of Truth (ASC CS CD6)
reviewed here a few years ago. In 2004
the composer made the present version
for strings, harp and marimba. It is
really superb and much warmer than the
original setting. Composed as a tribute
to Ida Carroll, it ends with a deeply-felt
Chaconne.
Over the last few years,
Ian Parrott composed a number of pieces
for recorder mostly for or at the instigation
of John Turner. The Sinfonia Concertante
for recorder, violin, strings and percussion
is one of the latest. As with David
Beck’s concerto, Parrott’s piece also
displays more stringent harmonies and
animated rhythms. This substantial piece
is rounded-off by a lively final Rondo.
This most attractive
selection ends with a short, delightful
dance movement by David Dubery - a name
new to me - that provides an uplifting,
joyful conclusion.
John Turner may well
be the Carl Dolmetsch of our time. His
untiring energy and whole-hearted enthusiasm
have encouraged many composers, from
varied stylistic horizons, to write
again for recorder, and thus considerably
expand the instrument’s contemporary
repertoire with many worthwhile and
often accessible pieces.
I do not hesitate to
recommend this well-planned, varied
and superbly played selection; pure
joy from first to last.
Hubert Culot
John Turner (recorder) 
