Byrd and the Bird

Giovanni Antonini and Shen-Fang Chiu form a magnificent recorder duo that enjoys exploring diverse and unusual programs. This album is named after a piece composed by Giovanni Sollima in 2024: it is an homage to William Byrd and combines the tenor recorder with the sopranino recorder, which can perfectly imitate birdsong. The program spans various eras, from the art of diminution and improvisation in the 15th century, through the refined 18th-century duets of Jacques Hotteterre and a 1727 sonata by Telemann, to Bartók's duets from the 1930s, which were originally composed for two violins. The Nuovo ricercare No. 4 (1973) is by the recorder prodigy Amico Dolci, son of the great sociologist and pacifist Danilo Dolci. With a wink, the two instrumentalists quote Shakespeare's Hamlet: “[Play the recorder] 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 . . .”