Gordon Jacob, born in 1895, taught for many years at the Royal College of Music; one of his students there was Malcolm Arnold, and one can hear the connection in these little pieces for recorder. Jacob wasn't particularly a recorder specialist but wrote idiomatically for a wide variety of instruments in a neo-classic idiom shaped somewhat by English pastoralism and by the heritage of English music. Putting these influences together with a solo recorder was a promising line of inquiry, and it's not surprising that he wrote ...
Read More
Gordon Jacob, born in 1895, taught for many years at the Royal College of Music; one of his students there was Malcolm Arnold, and one can hear the connection in these little pieces for recorder. Jacob wasn't particularly a recorder specialist but wrote idiomatically for a wide variety of instruments in a neo-classic idiom shaped somewhat by English pastoralism and by the heritage of English music. Putting these influences together with a solo recorder was a promising line of inquiry, and it's not surprising that he wrote several works for the instrument, two of which are given their premieres here by the agile British player Annabel Knight. The finale of the Suite for recorder and string quartet (1957), commissioned by the great recorder revivalist Carl Dolmetsch himself, makes considerable demands on the player, but there are no extended techniques, and the virtuosity does not draw attention to itself. Jacob is at his best when he forces the specific implications of the recorder sound into his music...
Read Less