Ensemble recorders range from jazz to fugue

By Ruth Bingham
Special to The Advertiser

•	Final concert of Honolulu Chamber Music season: Colorado String Quartet with vocalist Mary Hessinger 7:30 p.m. April 16 Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawai'i-Manoa Meet-the-Artists session begins one hour before the concert Information: 956-8246. Tickets: 956-6878.

A consort is an ensemble of instruments, often of the same family. Recorders, for example, come in all shapes and sizes, from the 8-inch sopranino to the contrabass, which is so tall the musician stands to play it.

Recorder consorts were common in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Today, a consort has nothing to do with music, and a recorder is that flute-like thing we played in grade school.

Amidst the bright timbres and almost constant vibrato of modern music, the recorder conjures earlier times, even when playing contemporary music. A type of flute, it has a softer, airier sound and a sweet hollowness that gives the illusion of aural space.

It is also are among the most accessible of instruments. Almost anyone can learn to play with a minimum of instruction, which is why recorders are introduced in grade school.

Playing them well, however, is another matter.

Beginnings and endings of notes are treacherous, and intonation is a constant concern. Master musicians use such shortcomings to their advantage, "bending" the character of notes.

Celebrating 25 years of mastery, the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet — musicians Karel van Steenhoven, Bertho Driever, Daniel Bruggen and Daniel Koschitzki — created a wider variety of effects on their recorders than one could imagine.

Their program "Suites & Sweets" included works from the recorder's heyday (Matthew Locke, Henry Purcell, Georg F. Handel), but the most exciting pieces were contemporary, including three composed in 2002.

One of the most delightful was Steenhoven's "The Fugitive," a jazzed fugue replete with bent blue notes and swung rhythms.

Jazz was only one style presented. The quartet gathered works from various eras, and played them without prejudice: a Purcell chaconne, a minimalist work by Caldini, Baroque suites, a rollicking birthday, a moody Schubert, even a programmatic fugue by Pohlit.

The encore was Brahms as never heard before — in counterpoint, on four sopraninos pulled from pockets as the musicians stood across the stage for bows.

Friday's memorable concert by Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet was a first for HCMS, but surely not the last in Honolulu.