Dutch Recorder Virtuoso Lucie Horsch Brings Life Back to Fourteen Historic Instruments in the 'Brüggen Project'

THE BRÜGGEN PROJECT, RELEASED ON 8 NOVEMBER 2024 FOR THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF FRANS BRÜGGEN’S BIRTH, CELEBRATES THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ONE OF EARLY MUSIC’S GREAT PIONEERS

 Dutch recorder virtuoso Lucie Horsch announces her new Decca album, a compelling programme of early 18th-century compositions delivered on instruments of the same vintage.

The Brüggen Project, set for release on 8 November 2024, just after the 90th anniversary of Brüggen’s birth, takes the listener back to a golden age of instrument making. Its tracklist features fourteen historic recorders, each blessed with its own distinctive sound and musical personality.

Frans Brüggen, a towering figure in the world of period-instrument performance, often played on the historic recorders he acquired during his long and illustrious career. The Dutch musician’s peerless collection largely fell silent after his death ten years ago. Lucie has restored it to vibrant life.

The album contains sublime interpretations of ensemble pieces by Marcello, Corelli and J.S. Bach, including the famous Air from the latter’s Third Orchestral Suite and Brüggen’s transcription of his Concerto in E major BWV 1053. It also trains the spotlight on a sequence of solo works that demonstrates the tonal variety and subtle nuances of instruments created three centuries ago in London, Paris, Nuremberg and the Netherlands.

“Frans Brüggen was such an inspiration,” comments Lucie Horsch. “Although the historic recorders are the main focus of this album, it is also my homage to him. I wish to thank his widow, Machtelt Israëls, for allowing me to use his instruments for this recording. Because of her understandable concerns for their conservation, there were limits to how long I could prepare and play on them. The end result could almost be regarded as a live recording. With the most fragile recorders, we were only able to do two full takes of a piece. I was so lucky to work with great musicians who were ready to overcome these challenges in such a limited amount of time.”

The Brüggen Project includes rarely heard French treasures by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier and Nicolas Chédeville; works by Handel, Telemann, François Couperin and Haydn; a brace of pieces from Jacob van Eyck’s Der Fluyten Lust-Hof; and three tunes from The Bird Fancyer’s Delight, a small volume intended to broaden the repertoire of caged songbirds. The album is packed with meaningful connections to Frans Brüggen. The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the period-instrument ensemble which he co-founded in 1981, joins Horsch in her transcription of the Adagio from Alessandro Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor, the penultimate movement of Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and Bach’s Concerto in E major, originally written for harpsichord and strings. Horsch performs the latter on a Fourth Flute, a soprano recorder in B flat, built for Frans Brüggen in the 1970s by the Australian maker Frederick Morgan. She is also joined by Brüggen’s nephew, the cellist Albert Brüggen, the acclaimed Baroque violinist Rachel Podger and harpsichordist Tom Foster.

In 2023, her third album Origins was awarded the Edison Klassiek Audience Prize and lauded by critics: ‘Conceptually enterprising, sparkily executed, spotlighting both Horsch’s formidable technical prowess and her inventive powers, [this] is an unexpected and marvellous affair’ Gramophone.

Lucie Horsch reflects on the invaluable learning experience provided by Brüggen’s recorders. Each instrument, she notes, is distinguished from its companions by subtle differences of sound, pitch and intonation. “It’s as if there was no such thing as the recorder during this period; rather, there was a multitude of recorders, each with its own sound qualities. I had to listen to what every instrument wanted from me. I wasn’t able to explore all their qualities before the recording, so it was a case of being very intuitive and attentive in the moment during the sessions. It needs all your technique and more – I had to do things that my teacher would have said are not done but which the instrument required! I hope people will be as amazed as I was by the exquisite beauty and warmth of their sound.”