Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Jacob Clemens non papa, Guillaume Dufay, Grimace, Guus Janssen, Jacob Obrecht, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Cipriano de Rore, Alexander Scriabin, Celia Swart, Calliope Tsoupaki, Juan Felipe Waller, Robert Zuidam
Performer: Brisk Recorder Quartet Amsterdam
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Globe
Catalogue: GLO5283
Release: 2021
Size: 1 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Rore: Canon
02. Dufay: Invidia nimica
03. Grimace: A l’arme, a l’arme
04. Dufay: Fuga duorum temporum
05. Tsoupaki: Aerinon
06. Waller: Salupita
07. Waller: Dualfin
08. Obrecht: Fuga
09. Palestrina: Super flumina Babylonis
10. Obrecht: La Tortorella
11. Swart: Generations around me
12. Clemens: Angelus Domini
13. Zuidam: Méditations sur la liberté et l’égalité III
14. Bach: Chorale ‘Das alte Jahr vergangen ist’, BWV 288
15. Bach: Chorale Prelude ‘Das alte Jahr vergangen ist’, BWV 614
16. Bach: Fuga a 4 voci, alla duodecima from Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080
17. Janssen: De Meesterfout
18. Scriabin: Canon in D minor
19. Tchaikovsky, Numan: Nocturne, Opus 19, No. 4
20. Brahms: Einförmig ist der Liebe Gram
This album is a hand numbered limited edition of 1000 copies containing five world premiere recordings by Robert Zuidam, Calliope Tsoupaki, Celia Swart and Juan Felipe Waller.
Four musicians sharing their musical worlds as equals: that is an intimate and refined art which requires a huge commitment and deep mutual trust. Four in One stands for four individuals who form a close creative unity while keeping their own identities. That is why Four in One is the perfect motto for the 35th anniversary of the BRISK Recorder Quartet Amsterdam. But this motto does not only relate to BRISK’s anniversary, it also refers to the canon, the best-known musical form of four-in-one. By using one melody in succession, a polyphonic whole is created. Canons from Dufay and Obrecht to Brahms, Skryabin and Zuidam constitute the common thread of this CD.
In addition, other imitative forms are presented which have been eagerly used in music history. Thus the finely woven web of voices in Flemish Burgundian polyphony and Bach’s fugues also originated in canonical writing. Moreover, Four in One is a showcase of BRISK’s rich repertoire, with early music, new work written for the quartet and arrangements of romantic music. The recorder has a relatively small repertoire, but this limitation presents a challenge. BRISK has done everything in its power to enlarge the repertoire, making countless arrangements in the tradition of the instrument.
Organ music has been a constant source of inspiration. Again and again BRISK have been told that sometimes they sound just like a small organ. “It is as if an organ is being played by a player who is awake in all his fingers,” a reviewer once wrote about the quartet. Each voice takes on its own colour, and together they are much more than one person playing a four-part piece. It is precisely the personal contribution and the diversity of several players that turn it into a lively whole.
Arranging vocal music, with diminutions and embellishments after historical models, is also one of BRISK’s favourite activities. In 1535, Silvestro Ganassi wrote in Opera intitulata Fontegara that the recorder is able to imitate the human voice through articulation and the flow of the player’s breath. For this musician and music theorist, that was an ideal to be pursued as much as possible. That approach is tailor-made for BRISK.