Byrd and the Bird

Description

Giovanni Antonini and Shen-Fang Chiu form a leading recorder duo who enjoy exploring varied and unexpected repertoires. This album is named after a piece composed by Giovanni Sollima in 2024: it pays homage to William Byrd and combines the tenor recorder and the sopranino recorder, a perfect imitator of birdsong. This program spans the ages, from the art of diminution and improvisation in the 15th century to the duos of Bartók from the 1930s - originally composed for two violins - via the highly refined duos of Jacques Hotteterre in the 18th century and a Sonata by Telemann from 1727. To be discovered, the Nuovo ricercare Nr. 4 (1973) by Amico Dolci, a child prodigy of the recorder and son of the great sociologist and pacifist Danilo Dolci. The two instrumentalists have mischievously chosen to highlight this quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet: " [to play the recorder] is as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music..."