The Recorder

A CD of John Turner is always a pleasure. Wind Blown features the Sonatas for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Recorder. Idiomatically written, they demand the highest levels of technical facility and expressive maturity. The Recorder and Piano Sonata’s opening Fantasia features long, melismatic legato phrases. Threnody is a haunting feast of melodic invention, with a piano accompaniment which is endlessly varied. The final movement, Moto Perpetuo is a breathtaking ride with a lively recurring rhythmic figure punctuated by sections of more melodic content. Tallis Remembered, for clarinet, recorder and piano, is a set of variations on the famous Canon. I enjoyed the unusual scoring, and was impressed by how well each voice’s part was written; such invention makes this a work which deserves to be performed often. A Walk with my Dog Molly, for speaker and recorder, is another imaginative composition. The recorder is the dominant voice, the spoken text is occasional and the whole is characterfully realised by John Turner and Pam Zinnemann-Hope (the composer’s wife), with a sense of joyful fondness for Molly.

—Adam Dopadlik