Frescobaldi: Ricercar No. 3 (Recercar franzese terza)

Richard Lester was described both by The Times and the Daily Telegraph as ‘one of our leading players’ and more recently acclaimed as ‘one of the greatest early music keyboard players of this or any other time.’ In 1981, Sir William Glock, former BBC controller of music invited him to perform a solo harpsichord recital at the Bath International Festival. Countless engagements at major international music festivals followed including the Bruges festival, Bath Bach festival and concerts at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and in 2007 a sell out solo recital at London's South Bank Centre.

It is tempting to see the history of music in Frescobaldi's time as a kind of Darwinian struggle between the conservative, rule-bound traditions of the sixteenth century and the freely expressive innovations of the early seventeenth century, or between the prima pratica of contrapuntal rigour and dry, intellectual structures, and the seconda pratica of the expressive madrigal, toccata and sonata with its emphasis on personal expression and freedom. For Frescobaldi, however, the two conflicting styles of composition amount to two facets of the same musical coin, which both shine brilliantly thanks to harpsichordist Hank Knox’s riveting performance on a magnificent 17th-century Italian instrument that is part of Kenneth Gilbert's collection of early harpsichords presently housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chartres.

The Dutch Loeki Stardust Quartet was established in 1978, and from the outset was not your ‘normal’ group of recorder-players. Sure, Baroque repertoire figured prominently in their concerts, but the concerts often contained surprises, substituting the last chord of a canzone with a well-known TV signature tune for example – in this case Loeki the Lion was the TV programme that gave the quartet its name. Wanting to give concerts that were a crossover between St Martin in the Fields and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young was the aim in the early years.

A series of big engagements followed, including the Wigmore Hall with Christopher Hogwood, and then recordings for Decca which are included in this 4CD set. The maverick style of the group came to the fore again, when after a successful sequence of Baroque recordings they released a recording of music by Erroll Garner, Henry Mancini, Lennon and McCartney and Charlie Parker together with works by Vivaldi, Beethoven, J.C. and J.S. Bach.

Never before has the recorder sounded so much fun!