Complete Flute Sonatas

Jean Marie Leclair's music has always been of great enjoyment to me (I especially love his violin concertos.) These sonatas for transverse flute and basso continuo consisting of viola de gamba and harpsichord are so very appealing. I do love the sound of the Baroque flute; it is so very mellow and soothing. The sonatas on this recording consists of four movements (there is one that is three movements) which contain two fast and two slow movements each. They are wonderful especially the ones in minor keys. I can visualize people sitting around a well appointed "Drawing room" in powdered wigs listening to this music.

This first installment in a complete recording of Bach’s flute sonatas (which includes both authenticated and attributed works) is successful in every respect. The diffuse recording has spaciousness and warmth, the period instruments sound beautifully, and the performers play with character and sensitivity. Reasonable choices of tempos, detailed articulation, and varied continuo (harpsichord, cello, theorbo, organ, and even fortepiano contribute in turn to its realization) constantly help to maintain interest and liveliness.

Jed Wentz began his career as a virtuoso flutist but gradually turned to conducting. He founded the early music ensemble Musica ad Rhenum (Music on the Rhine) and has appeared as soloist or conductor with them in numerous concerts throughout the world. Wentz has hardly abandoned the flute though or its early music counterparts like the traverso but he has, since the 1990s, focused more on the conducting side of his career and devoted much time as well to the understanding and implementation of historically informed music practices.

Swiss-French flautist Emmanuel Pahud, named "one of the finds of the decade" by Gramophone Magazine, is one of today's most exciting and adventurous musicians. Appointed Principal Flute for the Berliner Philharmoniker aged just 22, his solo albums have sold over 400,000 copies worldwide, including a Mozart Concertos disc that has sold over 70,000 units.