CD Reviews
Read more reviews and listen to select tracks from Lisette's recordings!
"Two talented American baroque specialists join forces to present a program of sonatas by JS Bach that is as sensuously beautiful as it is illuminating. Lisette Kielson, recorder and flute; and Paul Boehnke, harpsichord and organ, known collectively as "L'Ensemble Portique," pay homage to the gentle art of transcription as it was practiced in that era, in a way that Bach himself would surely have approved. Together, they take choice works from the flute, organ, and violin repertoire and make something new, fresh and immensely appealing.
The works presented here in new arrangements are Bach's Trio Sonatas for Organ, BWV 525 and 526; Sonatas for Flute and Keyboard, BWV 1020 and 1032; and Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard, BWV 1014 and 1017. In arranging them, Kielson and Boehnke made intelligent decisions about which keyboard and which flute would sound most optimal in a given work. Kielson employs alto recorders in BWB 525, 1017 and 1032, tuned to A=415 in the first two instances and A=440 in the last, where it achieves greater presence against the background of Boehnke's organ than it would otherwise have. She uses a flute in the other sonatas, very memorably in BWV 526 where it engages in a charming duet with one of the organ's flûte stops in the opening Vivace movement. Otherwise, the artists made some necessary and judicious changes, eliminating double stops in the opening movement of BWV 1014 and transposing the Adagio of 1017 up an octave to give the recorder a more gracious, idiomatic sound.
All of which pays off handsomely here in performances that can be exciting in the fast movements and indescribably lovely in the slow ones. Just listen to BWV 1020 for Flute and Harpsichord, one of Bach's best-loved works, and you will hear what I mean."
Phil's Classical Reviews
Audio Video Club of Atlanta