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GRAMOPHONE (04/2015)
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BIS2115



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Reviewer: Ivan March

In their music-making, ‘Sirena pass seamlessly between different eras and musical styles,’ suggests Matti Eden’s note with this CD. The result is the most extraordinary, even weird, recorder concert I have ever come across. The ensemble is excellent, the arrangements ingenious, the recording (especially when reproduced in SACD) absolutely natural and evocative. The four Sirena players can choose from a great variety of instruments of different sizes and tone colours, which they play expressively and often with great virtuosity.

The programme opens enticingly with an excerpt from Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico. Originally using violin and cello soloists, it is here heard in quite different woodwind colouring. The three favourite Bach chorales which follow are all delightfully arranged; and the following complete work, Boismortier’s unusual and rare threemovement Concerto for five flutes adapts well for recorders and is equally rewarding in such a fine performance. So far so good!

Then the music becomes more problematic. Chiel Meijering’s Sanctus may be inventive but does not sound like a Sanctus at all. It even includes a groaning vocal episode which is difficult to justify. Dick Koomans’s The Jogger certainly jogs convincingly but Staffan Mossenmark’s evocation of Childhood is curiously enigmatic (with more despairing cries at the end).

Fulvio Caldini’s minimalist ClockworkToccata is lively but very repetitive. However, Samuel Scheidt’s beautiful Fantasia on the chorale ‘Io con ferito ai lasso’ is the memorable highlight of the concert, showing these artists at their most radiant. The two contrasted Merula pieces also both catch the ear, and the anonymous Petrone, from the 14th century, makes an effective finale. Yet, even with Sirena’s imaginative arrangements, all in all, this is a CD one would only want to dip into for its novelty, or play to curious friends.

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