Interview, Lucie Horsch on Vivaldi

Lucie Horsch made recording history earlier this year when (then aged 16) she became the first recorder-player ever to sign to Decca Classics: the label's managing director Alexander Buhr hailed her as 'a perfect ambassador for her instrument' and her debut disc of Vivaldi (released last month) certainly bears this out, as did the infectious enthusiasm which came across when I spoke to her over the phone recently about how she first fell in love with the recorder and its repertoire, her musical family and plans for the future....

First of all, why Vivaldi for your big debut album on Decca? What’s special about that composer for you?

I like the way that it’s so energetic and rhythmic - plus almost everybody knows some Vivaldi! I also chose him because he's written many different kinds of concertos: there's so much variety in his compositions, and so many changes of atmosphere.

You’ve got a couple of transcriptions on the disc – how did it feel playing something that’s so associated with string writing?

Well actually, what is really funny is that though the arrangement's not actually by Vivaldi, it is from the time when he lived, by one of his contemporaries - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was very famous as a philosopher but not so much as a composer. But he did compose and he copied a lot, and one of the things he wrote was an arrangement of 'Spring' from The Four Seasons! So it’s kind of authentic because it was originally composed by Jean Jacques Rousseau for the recorder, and I think it fits really well - everyone knows [the original] so well that I imagine everyone can almost hear the accompaniment!

You mention on your website your desire to break down preconceptions about the recorder. Have you come across much anti-recorder prejudice, and do you think there are still negative stereotypes surrounding the instrument?

Probably there is, yes, possibly caused by the fact that in some countries it’s still the instrument that’s learned at school - that’s maybe why people don’t like the instrument, because they don’t see it as a real instrument, they see it as a school thing. But I actually didn’t start playing recorder as a 'school thing' - I was five or six years old, and I started because I really wanted to just discover the instrument, so I come at it from a different point of view. My parents told me that I said to them that I want to play the recorder and that I was very stubborn about it, so I just felt that it was my instrument from the beginning. But the reason I still continue and the reason I love the instrument so much is probably the sound itself, and also the fact that you can play on more than one - there are so many different types of recorder, so it’s very nice because you need to be able to play all different kinds of music, old music, contemporary music, Baroque music, you can play with ensembles...there are all sorts of possibilities.

Your parents are cellists: do you have any early memories of being around Baroque music?

They were always practising, so probably I did get influenced by the fact that there was always music in our house - my brother plays the violin, so actually at any time of the day there was always someone practising somewhere in the house or listening to music! My father actually performs on this CD, so now we also have concerts together with the ensemble, but we only really perform together on official occasions. It’s not like we suddenly get together to play when we’re home - it’s not anything like as romantic as that!

You mentioned your interest in contemporary music – might that be the focus of a future recording?

Actually in the concerts that are coming up in Holland I will play some Berio: it’s a completely crazy piece so I’m practising that a lot now, and I’m busy with some other contemporary pieces - but otherwise there’s nothing specific planned as a contemporary music project, though I would really love to do that some time.