The term "brunette" refers not only to a young woman with brown hair, but also to a musical form that was highly fashionable from the late seventeenth century to the early eighteenth. The genre evolved from the air de cour, extremely popular in France since the beginning of the seventeenth century. The compositional process, however, remained very similar: to write a short, tender song, dealing with themes of love or nature, which could be sung alone or accompanied by a harmonic instrument. The late seventeenth century also saw the appearance of an instrument that soon became a favourite of composers and amateur musicians: the German flute, now called the traverso or Baroque flute. In this new programme, tenor Reinoud van Mechelen, flautist Anna Besson and A nocte temporis present an anthology of airs and brunettes ranging from the most touching song to the heartiest drinking song (air à boire). © Alpha Classics

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Jacques Hotteterre, a French court musician during and just after the end of the reign of Louis XIV, composed one of the first important treatises on playing the transverse flute. His suites for flute and continuo (played simply here on a viola da gamba and harpsichord) are restrained works, some would say to a fault, but fully in keeping with the severity and strict etiquette familiar from other descriptions of life at Versailles. There is not a trace of the broader and showier Italian manner in these little dances, which are scrupulously ornamented according to the principles laid down in Hotteterre's treatise and in the notation itself. Some of the suite movements have programmatic titles, but most do not, and the dances are not sharply differentiated from one another. There is little of the intellectual adventure of Rameau or of the intense miniature portraiture of Couperin -- instead there are perfectly sanded-down tunes with every note in the right place and ornaments like little flowers on the surface. In the scholarly and skillful playing of Barthold Kuijken, playing a replica of Hotteterre's own plummy-sounding but agile flute, the music finds its ideal interpreter (and in Accent's quiet, exact sound its perfect sound environment). No one would claim Hotteterre as the most exciting figure of the French Baroque, but this reissue disc is a representation of his style that's suitable for any library or collection focusing on music of the period.© TiVo

This double-disc reissue combines two releases by Barthold, Sigiswald, and Wieland Kuijken, respectively from 1978 and 1986. The earlier one, especially, dates from the years when historical-performance philosophies were first applied to music of the Classical era, and both recordings have held up well. Barthold Kuijken's gentle transverse flute blends in with the other two instruments in a way that's difficult to achieve with a modern flute. The works are all incidental pieces by Haydn, written for his princely employer at Esterháza. All are in three movements, although the sequence of the three is hardly duplicated at all. They are pleasant examples of background music, with short movements artfully arranged so as to draw the listener's ear to a single affecting detail, and the Kuijkens deliver ingratiating performances without a hint of the severity that sometimes afflicts Baroque specialists playing Classical music. There are a few caveats for the buyer. The two discs don't form a sonic whole and haven't even been dynamically equalized. They don't really form an artistic whole, either. The music is not the advertised "Twelve Trios for transverse flute, violin, and violoncello" of Haydn; the works on the first disc are alternate versions of divertimenti for two violins and cello, while the second consists of baryton trios in an arrangement made during Haydn's day with, the performers argue, Haydn's implicit or explicit approval. Haydn realized that the baryton, a bizarre cello-like instrument with a lot of sympathetic strings, was an instrument played by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy and very few others, the reasoning goes, so he composed these works with an eye toward eventual transposition for the forces represented here. The argument is rather detailed, and those with a specific interest in the performance practice of the era will doubtless find it useful. It is a bit exasperating, however, for the general listener who is curious as to what the original versions of these pieces sounded like but who, despite several decades of "authentic" performances, rarely if ever gets to hear them. None of this, however, affects the pleasant, polished, and (as always with Haydn), slightly jocular music heard on these two discs. © TiVo

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The sonatas for flute and continuo by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach date mostly from early in the composer's career. A few of them carry hints of the Sturm und Drang intensity that would become Bach's chief claim to fame, but many are light, galant works with a certain meditative quality. The flutes played on this recording by veteran Dutch historical-instrument specialist Barthold Kuijken, replicas of instruments from the middle of the eighteenth century, are ideal for the music, with a gentle, woody sound that emphasizes the courtly intimacy of the music. The simple continuo realization, with harpsichord (or fortepiano) only, also keeps the dimensions restricted and the focus on the imaginative little turns of the flute lines. Kuijken's easy familiarity with this music is reflected in his delightful booklet notes, which succeed in their application of the technique of explaining the composer's feelings in the terminology of our own time. These are little gems of the flute repertoire, light as can be but entirely fresh, in performances that capture the gossamer, desultory mood of the early Classic period like few others have. Superbly recorded and generously illustrated with artwork of the period that depicted musical performances, this disc transports the listener to the Prussian courts of Bach's time. © TiVo