Carolyn’s Music

The next movement in the Barsanti sonata from the concert on 3/19/06

Barsanti Sonata II 2. Allegro

Jean Daniel Braun, 16??-1740?. Very little information about him, I’ll have to look more.

This piece is out of The Baroque Solo Book, a must-have compilation of pieces that sit well on the alto recorder.

Recorded this at home. It’s very interesting, how different this experience was both from live concert recording, and from studio recording. None of the tension of live performance, it’s extremely freeing to know that if I mess up I can just do another take. On the other hand, it makes me much more critical of the recording. Also, there are a lot of outside things going on–turn off the fridge, dont do laundry or dishes, pray that the furnace doesnt decide to kick in (I suppose I could have turned the thermostat way down…), and of course there are birds and dogs and neighbor’s trucks. And an extremely patient and understanding husband (dont make any sounds at all for the next hour or so dear, I’m recording!). Visions of sound studios danced in her head….Played a bit with reverb (too much, perhaps), and actually ended up splicing two of the takes together. Learning….

Braun Allemanda

This recording is from a concert I did on 3/19/06. The harpschordist is Miyuki Tsurutani. The composer, Francesco Barsanti (1690-1772) was born in Lucca, Italy and moved to London, England in 1714. He lived in Edinburgh from 1735-43, and then returned to London. He played oboe and flute for the London Italian Opera, and viola at Covent Garden. He wrote several sonatas for recorder, as well as many larger pieces. He also adapted Scottish airs for voice and instruments.

The Adagio from Sonata II is a gorgeous example both of high baroque style and of what the recorder can do.

Barsanti Sonata II 1. Adagio

Just bought recording equipment, and recorded concert on 3/19/06. My goal here is to publish a podcast every week, to push myself to continue to work up new repertory. Of course, the concert recording gives me enough material to avoid doing any new stuff for a while, but I’m going to try to intersperse it with other new stuff. We’ll see….