The Recorder

There are some interesting curios on The fabulous Sir John, a disc dedicated to the memory of Sir John Manduell, the founding Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music. John Turner brings his wonted elegance to the long lines of Adam Gorb’s Aria for Sir John, Michael Berkeley’s sad and angry Valse Triste and Richard Stoker’s Memento Mary Magdalene, Op. 84, three pieces for recorder and string quartet. There’s also Manduell’s own 11/8 jeu d’esprit, Tom’s Twinkle, and Bell Birds From Nelson, which uses descant and treble to capture Australian birdsong most attractively. It made me think of Van Eyck’s English Nightingale. Not perhaps music that you’d take to a desert island, but all useful additions to the repertoire.

—Fiona Hook