Corelli — Handel: Sonatas
Michaela Koudelková — recorders
Monika Knoblochová — harpsichord
Libor Mašek — cello
Jan Krejča — theorbo
Supraphon (SU 4356-5)
Review by Graham Rickson
This disc’s bright, piquant flavour makes it an irresistible acquisition. I dived into recorder player Michaela Koudelková’s new album after several days spent wallowing in Vaughan Williams orchestral music, and it made for an invigorating palate-cleanser. Try the little “Furioso” from Handel’s Recorder Sonata in D minor, two minutes of exuberant froth, Koudelková’s dancing solo line having the upper hand (just) over a frenzied accompaniment. Cellist Libor Mašek’s rapid semiquaver runs defy belief: how is it possible to play so fast, so accurately? Interestingly, this Handel's sonata is the only work on this well-filled CD originally composed for recorder, the other works transcriptions of sonatas for transverse flute, oboe and violin. Five different recorders are used by Koudelková, her rationale for using each one explained in Jana Spáčilová’s sleeve note. Handel’s HWV 359b Sonata in E minor, written for flute, has Koudelková playing a ‘voice flute’, a variant of the tenor recorder with a wonderfully woody timbre, while the G major HWV 363b work began life as an oboe sonata in F. It’s performed here on a ‘sixth flute’, a high-pitched soprano instrument with a tone that never grates. Try the tiny fourth movement “Bourrée” for evidence, theorbist Jan Krejča a perfect foil for Koudelková.
The three Corelli sonatas were all composed for violin. Koudelková’s expressivity in Corelli’s slow movements is startling, and she draws some exquisite colours from her treble recorder in the slow fourth movement of the Sonata in F. The best comes last, the single-movement Sonata in D minor (better known as “La Follia”) sounding thoroughly idiomatic recast for descant recorder. This performance generates a terrific head of steam, harpsichordist Monika Knoblochová a rock-steady presence underneath the recorder’s pyrotechnics.
Originally published on TheArtsDesk.com.
Links
- Disc on the Supraphon webpage (in English)
and on their Czech-only Web-shop Supraphonline. - Disc on the website of the British retailer Presto Music.
- Webpage of Michaela Koudelková.
- Interior of the of Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in Prague – Vinohrady (in Czech Only).