Contrast is the order of the day from Dutch recorder quintet Seldom Sene. Their “musical mosaic” was created by leaping forwards and backwards across the centuries through 20 pieces, using a total of nearly 50 instruments in the process.
The earliest piece is an arrangement of La Spagna attributed to Josquin; the most recent is Greek composer Aspasia Nasopoulou's prizewinning Lelia doura of 2012. The playing has an organ-like solidity that's more impressive in arrangements of instrumental works than of vocal music.
I particularly enjoyed the leap from the clean lines of the finale of Bach's Sixth Brandenburg Concerto into the tooting, chugging, puffing mid-1980s world of Frans Geysen's Omtrent A-B-C, which has a machine-like insistency that, musically speaking, yields Heath Robinson-ish results.
