Blacked Little Caprice

Tasmin Little and her accompanist Piers Lane begin this most generous recital disc (comprising 72 minutes of music) in commanding style, with an appropriately gradiloquent account of Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro. The playing is committed and demonstrative, although Little is less convincing in the other Kreisler work, the Caprice viennois, where her vocalization and sense of timing lack that special Viennese charm so characteristic of Kreisler's original compositions.

As mentioned in his autobiographies, Telemann's encounters with Eastern European gypsy music influenced his own compositions. The young composer must have been enthralled by the wonderful inventiveness of this music, as typified in this recording with the last movements of the Caprice Symphony and the Concerto in e minor for recorder and flute.