Borletti-Buitoni Trust
BBT Artists
Rewarding Musical Excellence
The Frans Brüggen Project
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Rachel Podger violin
Esther van der Eijk viola
Albert Brüggen cello
Tom Foster harpsichord
Music by Haydn, Corelli, A. Marcello, J.S. Bach, Telemann, Van Eyck, Hotteterre, Boismortier, F. Couperin, Chedeville, John Walsh and Handel
Decca Classics 487 0642 | www.deccaclassics.com
Released 8 November 2024
Ten years after his death, Lucie Horsch pays tribute to the celebrated pioneer of the early music revival and her greatest inspiration in The Frans Brüggen Project. In what would also have been his 90th birthday year, Lucie was given access to Frans Brüggen’s private collection of precious historic recorders, which he started in the 1960s, and she has brought them to life again in repertoire specially chosen for each instrument’s distinctive sound.
Getting to know each of the 17 recorders in the collection was a fascinating journey; Lucie found that every one of them has its own character and unique response to being played. Because they are fragile artefacts of the kind usually kept behind glass, they demand not only a delicate approach and careful articulation, but Lucie’s deep musical intuition of how to master their individual voices and personalities: ‘It wasn’t about me at all, it was about the instruments and making them sound as good as possible’.
On the Decca album she is joined by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, founded by Frans Brüggen, as well as soloists including Rachel Podger.
Here she plays the slow movement from Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor, on an alto recorder in F by Jan Steenbergen, Amsterdam, c 1720.
Lucie Horsch plays Bach’s famous Air, the second movement of his Third Orchestral Suite in D, BWV 1068, with Rachel Podger violin, Esther van der Eijk viola, Albert Brüggen cello and Tom Foster harpsichord.
Lucie plays an alto recorder in F by Pierre Jaillard Bressan, London, c 1700-1725.
Here Lucie Horsch plays Telemann’s first-movement Largo from his Trio Sonata in A Minor, TWV 42:a4, with Albert Brüggen cello and Tom Foster harpsichord.
Lucie plays an alto recorder in F by Thomas Stanesby Senior, London c 1700-1725
Baroque concerto after Vivaldi
Lucie Horsch recorder/mezzosoprano
Orchestra of the 18th Century
One of three commissions made possible by recorder player (and singer) Lucie Horsch’s 2022 BBT Fellowship, Reza Namavar’s Fetiapoipoi was premièred in May 2024, with Lucie and the Orchestra of the 18th Century. The three movements bear Tahitian titles, the first is titled Pouri, meaning darkness, the second movement Fetiapoipoi, the morning star rises, and the last movement Poipoi, the morning. So within the piece there is a development from darkness to light. And Lucie also sings in the middle movement, based explicitly on the text of Vivaldi’s aria Sovente il sole, from his 1726 pasticcio-serenata, Andromeda liberata. More live performances are scheduled for December 2024.
Read Lucie’s blog about her hat-trick of commissions with her BBT Fellowship here