Everything here is, by definition, 'old' but much of the music is new to the catalogue, everything is 'borrowed' but only the overall solemnity of the programme might be termed 'blue'. The Art of Fugue is fair game that has indeed been bagged by many instrumental media: BWV537 and 550, both organ works, are equally apt to a recorder quartet—hearing the first as he ascended my stairs, a musical friend was surprised to learn that he had not been listening to an organ! Sweelinck's splendid keyboard variations on Mein junges en hat ein End were recorded by the Belgian Woodwind Quintet (Pavane ADW7152, 2/85—LP only) but have otherwise been sadly neglected—more so on recordings than in the concert hall. The two adaptations from viol-consort pieces work admirably: the eighth of Purcell's 15 'out-of-their-time' viol-consort fantasias, one of the nine a 4, and the fourth of the six suites in Locke's Consort of Fower Parts, of which the same artists have recorded also the fifth (414 277-1OH; ( 414 277-2OH, 8/86). The attractive Sonata by Boismortier, originally for three traverse flutes and con uo, is the only one of the six in his Op. 34 to have a recording; it is in four-movement, da chiesa form. Scheidt's Fantasia is taken from his Tabulatura nova (1624) and, unusually, its four parts are tabulated on separate pentagrams; it is a quadruple fugue whose first subject is borrowed from Palestrina, as its title indicates.
The nature of all the music is contrapuntal and in this recording every line is clearly audible. This may be the only recorder quartet to have derived its name from a piece of Dutch TV commercial music (Loeki the lion), but it is no less memorable for its superlative technical control and musical refinement, by which it holds the attention despite the minimal variety of tone-colour.'