fontanella recorder quintet

 

 

Pastime With Good Company

 

 

Featuring five of the UK’s leading specialist recorder players (Katriinia Boosey, Rebecca Austen-Brown, Louise Bradbury, Sarah Humphrys and Annabel Knight), the recorder ensemble Fontanella has been surprising and delighting audiences of all ages for the past ten years in programmes designed to bring the history of this remarkable instrument to life. Their lively concert programmes span six hundred years of music, celebrating the long history of the recorder right up to the present day, performed on an array of instruments of every shape and size from their beautiful 15-piece renaissance consort to their set of Paetzold ‘square’ basses.

 

The ensemble has appeared in concert and on radio and television networks across Britain and Europe, including recent performances across England and Scotland as well as in Italy, Iceland and Finland. They have also recently appeared as guest artists on the BBC’s flagship music show for children, ZingZillas. Fontanella also excels at creating special educational projects for children, which has led to large-scale events hosted by venues and festivals across the UK including the Brighton and York Early Music Festivals, the Southampton Turner Sims Hall, and music services in London, Kent, Cambridgeshire, Sussex and Surrey.

 

Their CD The Fruit of Love on the BCR label features beautiful Elizabethan music by Holborne, Byrd, Simpson and Dowland as well Tim Coker’s modern work, The Leaves be Green.

 

In Pastime with Good Company, a popular programme suitable for all the family, Fontanella traces the evolution of the recorder over seven centuries, incorporating medieval tunes, music from the Tudor age, jazz and folk song arrangements, brand new compositions and all sorts of glorious music up to the present day. Delivered with Fontanella’s characteristic enthusiasm and flair, this programme celebrates the enjoyment of music-making in all its forms across the ages, with something for everyone. With music by Henry VIII, Byrd, Vivaldi, Saint-Saens and Henry Mancini and a whole host of others, you will come away feeling inspired and astonished by the huge and exciting repertoire for recorder ensemble!