Superb recorder music by Praetorius

The series 'Artishock klassiek' continued in the Oude Kerk in Soest with a concert by one of the few large recorder orchestras in the Netherlands: the Praetorius Ensemble. This ensemble has existed for decades and has about 25 members. Some of the musicians have been members for years, but there are also some younger players, who are so enthusiastic about the recorder that they have found a place in the ensemble. This ensemble sets high standards.
The Praetorius Ensemble defied all prejudices regarding shrill, off-key, or boring recorder music. They played on a variety of magnificent instruments: basses, double-basses, contra-basses, and even a sub-contra-bass gave the ensemble a robust sound. The whole concert was very professional, everything was exact, on-time, and in-tune. Each piece required changes in personnel and these changes took place very smoothly.
The music played, by J.S. Bach, had not been written for such an ensemble, of course. Conductor Norbert Kunst had created arrangements for his orchestra, including parts of the Christmas Oratory, and explained how he had adapted the instrumentation for each piece. Sometimes a whole battery of lower instruments provided the basso continuo (accompaniment) for high solo instruments. For the eight-voice motet "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" each voice was made up of a combination of a number of low and one high recorder, thus creating a lovely balanced ensemble sound.
This led one of the listeners to sigh "I didn't know a recorder orchestra could sound so beautiful".

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