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CD reviews
Recorder concertos
[I] Antonio VIVALDI (1678 - 1741): "Concerti per flauto e Arie"
Isaac Makhdoomi, recorder;
Arnaud Gluck, altoa
Ensemble Piccante
Dir: Isaac Makhdoomi
rec: July 2022, Seewen (CH), Kirche St. German
Prospero - PROSP0064 (© 2023) (66'34")
Liner-notes: E/D/F
Cover, track-list & booklet
Scores
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Andromeda liberata (RV Anh 117) (Sovente il sole)a;
Concerto in C (RV 443);
Concerto in c minor (RV 441);
Concerto in D, op. 10,3 'Il gardellino' (RV 428);
Concerto in f minor, op. 8,4 'L'Inverno' (RV 297) (largo);
Concerto in g minor, op. 10,2 'La notte' (RV 439);
Concerto in a minor (RV 445);
Giustino (RV 717) (Vedrò con mio diletto)
Lukas Hamberger, Vojtech Jakl, violin;
Alba Encinas, viola;
Nicola Paoli, cello;
Federico Abraham, double bass;
Sam Chapman, theorbo, guitar;
Andreas Westermann, harpsichord
[II] "Recorder concertos from Sanssouci"
Isaac Makhdoomi, recorder
Ensemble Piccante
Dir: Isaac Makhdoomi
rec: July 2024, Seewen (CH), Kirche St. German
Prospero - PROSP0112 (© 2025) (61'18")
Liner-notes: E/D; lyrics - translations: D
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Carl Philipp Emanuel BACH (1714-1788):
Concerto in d minor (Wq 22 / H 425);
Franz BENDA (1709-1786):
Concerto in e minor (transp to d minor);
Carl Heinrich GRAUN (1704-1759):
L'Orfeo (GraunWV B:1,25) (D'ogni aura al mormorar);
Johann Joachim QUANTZ (1697-1773):
Concerto in G (QV 5,174) (transp to A)
Rahel Wittling, Giulia Manfredini, Andrés Murillo, Christoph Rudolf, Rahel Boell, Sepideh Nikoukar, violin;
Alba Encinas, Talia Baños Sánchez, viola;
Nicola Paoli, cello;
Federico Abraham, double bass;
Sebastian Bausch, harpsichord
Scores
The recorder has played an important role in Western music from the Middle Ages to well into the 18th century. Its role has been different, though, as well as its construction. The two discs which are the subject of this review focus on the 18th century, when the recorder was gradually overshadowed by the transverse flute.
As far as the baroque period is concerned, the recorder was part of instrumental ensembles of different kinds, but music for recorder solo, either with other instruments or with basso continuo alone, was mostly intended for amateurs. That does not mean that all recorder music was simple: one should not underestimate the skills of amateurs of those days. However, virtuosic music for the recorder is rare. If one looks at the biographies of the composers of the baroque era, one reads that they were educated on the keyboard, the violin or the cello, but never on the recorder. Recorder virtuosos did not exist. Those who played the most demanding recorder pieces were mostly professional oboists. One of them was Giuseppe Sammartini, who made a career in England and was hailed as one of the greatest oboists of his time. He has left one concerto for recorder which is frequently played. In Germany Bach did not compose a recorder concerto, and Telemann's concertos for or with recorder are not very virtuosic. That is different with two concertos by Johann Friedrich Fasch and Christoph Graupner respectively.
However, the best-known and most frequently-played recorder concertos are those by Antonio Vivaldi. His oeuvre includes two concertos for alto recorder and three for flautino, usually played on the sopranino recorder. All five of them are showpieces, and clearly intended for professional players. One is inclined to think that he must have written them for the girls of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, which were famous for their skills on a variety of instruments. However, these concertos date from the time that Vivaldi was not connected to the Ospedale. David Lasocki, in his liner-notes, suggests that they may have been written for Giorgio Ratzenberger, who was a professional oboist and played the flautino part in Vivaldi's opera Tito Manlio (1719). He was described as the "virtuoso oboe teacher" and was in the service of Duke Antonio Ferdinando Gonzaga di Guastalla.
Isaac Makhdoomi selected three of these five concertos: one for the alto recorder and two for flautino. He added two concertos from the Op. 10, which was published in 1729 in Amsterdam by Michel-Charles Le Cène. The fact that these six concertos were scored for the transverse flute rather than the recorder bears witness to what has been said above: the recorder was gradually overshadowed by the transverse flute. The recorder remained popular among amateurs, but how many of them would have been able to play these concertos?
They may be not as virtuosic as the five concertos just mentioned, they are demanding in a different way, especially those which bear titles. Here Vivaldi uses technical means to create effects which reflect the different titles, and that requires a thorough command of the flute, or, in this case, the recorder. In order to extend their limited repertoire, recorder players often turn to music conceived for transverse flute, and there is nothing wrong with that. Moreover, one of these works, the Concerto in D with the title Il gardellino, is an arrangement of a concerto da camera in which one of the parts can be played on recorder, transverse flute or violin. That is ample justification for a performance on the sopranino recorder. The Concerto in g minor with the title La notte, was also first conceived as a concerto da camera; in this case the four melody parts are for transverse flute or violin, two violins and bassoon. However, Lasocki writes that "the flute part fits the range of the alto recorder and the key of G minor was more common for the recorder than the flute."
The performance of violin parts on the recorder is probably harder to realize than pieces for the transverse flute, for instance if they include things like double stopping. Not every violin part can be easily adapted to the recorder. No adaptations seem to be needed in the middle movement of the last of the concertos from the famous cycle Le Quattro Stagioni. However, the effects Vivaldi achieves with the violin cannot be reproduced on the recorder. The performance of the obbligato violin part in the aria 'Sovente il solo' from Andromeda liberata is probably less problematic. The only real arrangement is the other aria, 'Vedrò con mio diletto' from Giustino; here the vocal part is played on the alto recorder in a transposition from B minor to A minor.
There is no doubt that Makhdoomi is a brilliant player. His dexterity in the fast movements is breathtaking. He produces a beautiful tone, both on the sopranino and the alto recorder. He adds a lot of ornamentation, and sometimes adds improvisatory episodes. Basically that is the right attitude. However, there is always the danger of going overboard, and doing too much. As Vivaldi's recorder concertos are frequently performed and available in many recordings, it is understandable that performers try to distinguish themselves from the competition. Unfortunately that often results in searching for the extremes. I feel that is the case here. In slow movements Makhdoomi takes very much freedom, which results in the original melody's becoming almost unrecognizable. The largo of the Concerto in C (RV 443) is a case in point. In the closing movement of the Concerto in c minor (RV 441) the amount of freedom is on the brink of rewriting what Vivaldi has written down. In the previous largo Makhdoomi opens with an improvised solo without accompaniment. It is known that performers often started with an improvisation preparing for the real piece, but it seems unlikely that it was done in the middle of a concerto. Makhdoomi chooses often high speeds, and that is mostly right. But as he adds so much, he needs to articulate very carefully. That is what he does, but sometimes that results in staccato playing, which is not very nice to hear.
Arnaud Gluck delivers a fine performance of the aria from Andromeda liberata, and Makhdoomi receives excellent support from his ensemble. However, as much as I am impressed by his skills and musicality, I am sceptical about the results. If I want to hear Vivaldi's recorder concertos, I prefer other recordings.
The second disc brings us to a time in which the recorder had been pushed aside by the transverse flute. The recorder was still played by amateurs, but not on a professional level. The concertos which Makhdoomi recorded are certainly not amateur stuff. Amateurs - Liebhaber, as they were called - did not play solo concertos, and the concertos by Quantz, CPE Bach and Franz Benda were written for virtuosos, in the case of Benda undoubtedly himself. The title of the disc is nonsense, of course: no recorder concertos were written in Sanssouci at the time of Frederick the Great.
The programme opens with one of the best-known concertos by Johann Joachim Quantz. He was educated as an oboist, but when he was at the court in Dresden, he decided to switch to the fashionable transverse flute, studying for a while with the star flautist there, Pierre Gabriel Buffardin. After returning from visits to Italy, France and England, he entered the service of Frederick, the Prussian crown prince, later known as Frederick the Great. He taught Frederick the flute, and held this post until his death. He composed a large number of sonatas and concertos for the flute, either for his own use or that of his employer. A performance on the recorder requires a transposition: the original key is G, here it is played in A on the alto recorder. Given that Quantz was not the most progressive composer and the fact that both the recorder and the transverse flute are wind instruments, the performance here is the most convincing in the programme. However, the cadenza in the second movement is too long.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is a different matter: he was in the service of Frederick as well, as his harpsichordist, who had to accompany him during the concerts in the palace when the King played his flute. It is unlikely that any of CPE Bach's concertos has ever been played at the court, let alone by the King himself. The latter did not like his harpsichordist, who did not show the necessary obedience, and whose style of composing was not to the monarch's taste. Bach's music was mostly played at private concerts in Berlin, for instance the Freitagsakademie. The Concerto in d minor has also been preserved in a version for harpsichord. It seems that the version for the transverse flute was the first. Here we meet Bach as the representative of the sensitive style that was in vogue in his time, and that is one of the reasons that a performance on the recorder does not really satisfy. The articulation goes at the cost of phrasing - comparable with what I observed with regard to some of Vivaldi's concertos. The recorder produces a sound which is mostly too jolly for the mood which this concerto wants to express. The result is a certain superficiality, despite the quality of the playing of Makhdoomi and the orchestra.
That is even more the case in the Concerto in d minor by Franz Benda. He was the star violinist at Frederick's court and especially famous for his expressive playing of the adagios of his own concertos. Makhdoomi, in his liner-notes, states that this concerto "can be heard here on a soprano recorder in the original key." He adds that it was originally written for violin in d minor. That is a surprising statement, as the original key is E minor. The transposition is not the problem, but rather - like in CPE Bach - a mismatch between the recorder and the style of this work. Here the additional issue is that the violin has an idiom which is not easy to translate to the recorder. The articulation that the music requires, leads to staccato playing on the recorder. The pitch of the recorder does not help: the frequent top notes don't sound very well on the soprano recorder.
As a kind of bonus we get an aria from an opera by Carl Heinrich Graun, and again the translation of the vocal part to the recorder is not a great success. The aria is rather sad, but you won't notice when you don't know the original or have read the text printed in the booklet.
To sum up: Makhdoomi shows here again that he is an outstanding recorder player, but the choice of works for this disc is largely a mistake.
P.S. The booklets and covers of both productions are full of pictures of Makhdoomi. That leaves a bad taste. A recording of music is not a personality show.
Johan van Veen (© 2025)
Relevant links:
Isaac Makhdoomi