It is a solid fact that the panpipes existed long before humankind reached its 'baroque' phase, as also that baroque composers devoted concertos to numerous strange instruments, but to the best of my knowledge no one (even the liberal Vivaldi) wrote one for the syrinx. Do not therefore worry too much about the album and individual titles; the music is, like that of 'baroque guitar concertos', borrowed.
The panpipes must be one of the most neglected of all instruments; memory returns to a recording by one Michelle Fromenteau, a virtuoso of the veille a roue (hurdy-gurdy)—for which original baroque music was written. The panpipes sound not unlike a recorder (at a modest distance one might confuse the two), gentle in sound but pretty penetrating when blown hard enough (as it is, disturbingly, in a few places), and one must admire Gheorghe Zamfir's sheer lateral agility, though it is not sufficient to permit much in the way of rapid ornaments. It is however irrelevant to discuss matters of authenticity; these are slightly-on-the-wrongside-of-the-road performances in which, for instance, the ECO's ornaments are frequently at variance with the soloist's 'antipodean' variety and the latter's sometimes disjointed phrasing e.g. in the slow movement of BWV1060, is not matched by anyone else present. Despite Zamfir's impressive pipe-work this is no more than a novelty, and I doubt that anyone wishing to hear any of these concertos would choose to do so in this way.
The ECO are in good form, as are also Messrs Black, Garcia and the recording engineers, but my enthusiasm for the end-product remains decidedly muted.'