A BREATH OF NEW LIFE Dutch Baroque music on original recorders from private collections Saskia Coolen - Patrick Ayrton - Rainer Zipperling GLO 5264 GLOBE RECORDS 1. Prelude in G minor (improvisation) [a] 1.37 WILLEM DE FESCH (1687-1760) Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 8 [e] UNICO WILHELM 12. Ceciliana 2:00 VAN WASSENAER (1692-1766) 13. Allemanda 3:47 Sonata seconda in G minor [b] 14. Arietta. Larghetto e piano 2:16 2. Grave 2:36 15. Menuetto primo e secondo 3:08 3. Allegro 2:54 4. Adagio 1:34 PIETER BUSTIJN (1649-1729) 5. Giga presto 2:26 Suite No. 8 in A major 16. Preludio 1.43 CAROLUS HACQUART (1640-1701?) 17. Allemanda 3.33 Suite No. 10 in A minor from Chelys 18. Corrente 1.52 6. Preludium. 19. Sarabanda 2.20 Lento - Vivace - Grave 2:46 20. Giga 2.02 7. Allemande 2:26 8. Courante 1:29 From: Receuil de plusieurs pièces 9. Sarabande 2:48 de musique […] choisies par Michel 10. Gigue 1:48 de Bolhuis (1739) [f] 21. Marleburgse Marche 1.16 11. Prelude in C minor (improvisation) [d] 1.27 22. Tut, tut, tut 1.04 23. O jammer en elende 1.09 24. Savoijse kool met Ossevleis 1.28 25. Bouphon 1.18 2 JOHAN SCHENCK (1660-1712) Suite in D minor from Scherzi musicali 26. Preludium 1:36 27. Allemande 2:34 28. Courant 1:29 29. Sarabande 1:59 30. Gigue 1:45 Saskia Coolen 31. Tempo di Gavotta 1:25 recorder, viola da gamba Patrick Ayrton PHILIPPUS HACQUART (1645-1692) 1.40 harpsichord 32. Allemande in A minor Rainer Zipperling viola da gamba JACOBUS NOZEMAN (1693-1745) Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 1 [c] 33. Sarabanda. Poco adagio 2:46 The recorders: 34. Allemanda. Larghetto 3:03 Terton, Brielle [a] 35. Allegro assai 1:53 Beukers, The Hague [b] 36. Tempo di Gavotta 1:35 Beukers, Schoonebeek [c] 37. Tempo di Minuetto 1:27 Van Heerde, The Hague [d] Van Heerde, Alphen aan den Rijn [e] Sopranino, Lisse [f] 3 SIX RECORDERS FROM THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY In 2012, recorder player Saskia Coolen discovered by chance, in the Historical Museum in Den Briel, the head joint of an alto recorder, made by the instrument maker Engelbert Terton. She brought in the recorder builder and expert Jan Bouterse who thoroughly cleaned and restored the joint. He suggested that there might well be other playble recorders to be found in private collections. In the years since then, Saskia’s research has turned up six forgotten eighteenth-century recorders: five altos and a sopranino. On this album she plays these rediscovered recorders, together with gambist Rainer Zipperling and harpsichordist Patrick Ayrton, in eighteenth-century music by De Fesch, Nozeman, Van Wassenaer and other contemporaries. In 2004 Saskia also played on historic recorders, from the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, resulting in the album Recorders Recorded. 4 THE SIX RECORDERS The sopranino from Lisse and the alto by Terton from Brielle come from regional museums. The other four instruments come A REMARKABLE DONATION from private collections; some have been in the family for gen- This recorder head joint by Terton was erations. All six instruments are from the end of the seventeenth donated to the Historical Museum in Den Briel in 1912. It is remarkable or the first half of the eighteenth century and were built by well- that the joint was valued as a historic known Amsterdam fluytenmakers (recorder makers). object at a time that the recorder was relatively unknown as a musical Terton recorder head joint, found in Brielle instrument. Recorder head joint by Engelbert Terton, found in the museum THE RESTORATION depot in Brielle in March 2012. According to the catalogue this To restore the joint to playing was a ‘soprano recorder from the seventeenth century’ but it condition, Jan Bouterse stabilized turned out to be the head of an alto recorder by the Amsterdam the damaged wood at the entrance builder Engelbert Terton. to the windway. He filled holes in the top of the windway that had been caused by insect damage. And finally Sopranino from the castle moat in Lisse he constructed a middle and foot A remarkable find is that of the sopranino from the moat of the joint, based on a copy of a similar small castle Huys Dever (Dever House) in Lisse. Terton recoder in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in The The former residents evidently tossed everything they could no Hague, which can be heard on the longer use out of the window into the moat. Since the castle album Recorders Recorded. (Boers- restoration began in 1973, all sorts of objects have been fished collection 1952x0031). The pitch out of the moat, such as plate shards, glassware, and utensils of the new Terton-reconstruction is – and also this antique sopranino recorder by an anonymous about a-419 Hz. The instrument plays fluidly, other than a little hoarseness builder. The wood is a black colour, although this may have especially in the upper register. been caused by the mud that it lay in for centuries. 5 Het Huys Dever, Lisse (photo Anna Groot) AN EARLY BAROQUE RECORDER This sort of sopranino is called ‘early baroque’ or ‘transitional’; a stage be- tween renaissance and baroque. It is a one-piece recorder, and the bore narrows conically toward the bottom. The recorder has a full two-octave range, and can be played with the same fingerings as the later multiple-joint in- struments. Early baroque recorders are often depicted in Dutch paintings from the seventeenth century. BUILDER PROBABLY HAKA The vague outline of a maker’s mark can be seen on this sopranino. The letters are illegible, but it’s almost cer- tainly a short name inside a pennant. This brings to mind Richard Haka (c1646-1705), from whom several one-piece recorders have survived. 6 Unfortunately the ring at the bottom of the recorder is missing. To be able to play on it anyway, Saskia inserted a small roll of paper just far enough so that the instrument played in tune. Van Heerde alto recorder from Alphen aan den Rijn The recorder that sounds the best comes from Alphen aan den Rijn. The instrument was built by one of the Amsterdam record- er makers from the Van Heerde family. Unfortunately the current owner does not know exactly where the instrument came from; the owner’s father may have bought it at a flea market or an auction. TWO UNIQUE FEATURES Two striking and unique features of Van Heerde alto recorder from The Hague the Van Heerde alto recorder from Al- Another recorder built by Van Heerde turned up in The Hague. phen aan den Rijn are that the wind- This one does not sound as good. The instrument was pur- way is clearly cut crooked, and the window is placed above the band of chased in the eighteenth century by the Groningen lawyer the top ring of the head joint. This alto Michiel van Bolhuis (1713-1764). by Van Heerde clearly differs from the Uniquely among Dutch instruments, it has remained in the fam- one that can be heard on the album ily ever since. Van Bolhuis was very well off. One of his own Recorders Recorded (Van Heerde descendants, a many-times-great-granddaughter in The Hague, 1952x0033). That instrument has made this instrument available for this project. much thinner walls and a higher pitch (a-426 Hz instead of a-410 Hz). This Beukers alto recorder from Schoonebeek alto from Alphen is very playable and This alto recorder from a private collection in Schoonebeek has has very little in the way of bother- been in the family for several generations. It was built by the some background sounds or noise. Amsterdam recorder builder Willem Beukers. No more 7 is known of the provenance; the current owners do not know EASY HIGH NOTES how it came to be in the family. The Beukers recorder from Schoonebeek is a sister-instrument to the alto that can be heard on the album Recorders Recorded (Boers-collectie, nr. 1952x0026). The recorders are stamped in the same way, with a crown above the Michiel van Bolhuis (Johannes Antiquus, 1739) name, and have a variety of technical Menkemaborg, Uithuizen details in common. For example, the windway is in length direction strongly domed, but in cross section very flat, matching with the shape of the labium edge. It plays fluidly, with fairly easy Beukers alto recorder from The Hague high notes. Its pitch is a-410 Hz. This alto recorder was recently discovered in The Hague, and more or less by chance. The instrument lay in a box amid ran- dom recorder parts. The owners did not realize the value, but EXPERT TURNING still wanted to participate in a charity drive for an instrument de- The Willem Beukers alto recorder from The Hague, bearing a lily maker’s mark, pot of a children’s orchestra. They managed to piece together is remarkable because the windway and a number of recorders, one of which appeared to be very old, mouthpiece are situated on the tangen- and they wanted to know more about it. After a recorder builder tial surface (the ‘flame’) of the wood. assured them that this was an original Beukers, they commis- The expertly refined turning is beautiful. sioned the album Recorders Recorded to hear how an instru- The high range does not speak well ment like this might sound. Saskia then asked the owner if she (there’s rather a lot of noise).