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Most recorder quartets can't afford one of your Van Halen-style road crews. Think about that when you attend the Connecticut College performance by Belgium's Flanders Recorder Quartet Thursday and realize they have over 60 of the instruments onstage.
”We think it makes it interesting for the audience if we play them all and show the diversity of the instruments and the different styles you can explore,” says group member Bart Spanhove.
He laughs.
”But for the four of us to get them all through airports is definitely the biggest problem we face. The baroque sub-bass recorder is 7½ feet high. Plus, over the last 10 years, the charges for extra luggage have really gone up,” he says.
But for the Flanders guys, the ordeal is worth it. As one of the most renowned recorder quartets in the world - perhaps only the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet is more famous - Spanhove and his fellow musicians (Tom Beets, Joris Van Goethem and Paul Van Loey) have performed over 1,500 concerts across five continents in their 21-year existence.
The program for the Conn College performance includes works by Bach, Van der Roost, Geysen, and Merula and includes arrangements by the quartet as well as material commissioned for the group.
”A lot of people don't realize the possibilities or range of the recorder,” says Spanhove, calling from a tour stop in Oberlin, Ohio, earlier this week. “There is certainly the association with medieval music, but in our 90-minute concerts, we take the audience through 700 years of music.”
A flute-appearing woodwind instrument with seven finger holes along the barrel, recorders as used in typical performance ensembles would be descant/soprano, treble/alto, tenor and bass. The members of the Flanders group are adept at all four basic types of recorder, and each plays a variety of instruments from their varied and rare collection.
One of the most intriguing parts of their show involves a piece performed on empty beer and wine bottles, “from our own cellars.”
”For practical reasons, we divide the (onstage musical) responsibilities up a little bit,” Spanhove says. “For example, the sub-bass, which is a $20,000 instrument, requires a certain technique. One of us is always responsible for that one, taking care of it and rehearsing the appropriate parts.”
The FRQ has released several CDs in their career including “Banchetto Musicale,” a 20th anniversary album, and “The Six Wives of Henry VIII,” their latest.
In addition to the evening concert, the Flanders Quartet will present a student outreach session in the afternoon at the Dual Language Arts Academy in New London.
Rob Richter, the director of arts programming at Conn College who booked the appearances, says, “We started a recorder program at the DLAA in the fall of 2007 and it's still going. The students seem to like it and I thought it would be really cool to bring artists like the Flanders quartet to town so the students can see the diversity and range of this instrument they're learning.”
In fact, Spanhove, Van Goethem and Van Loey all met while they were students at conservatory. Over the years, different musicians have been the fourth member, but Beets has now been in the group for over three years.
”We started all those years ago as friends and students, just to play chamber music and have fun,” Spanhove says. “Suddenly, we were doing international tours. For the students in New London, we'll play plenty of arrangements of 20th-century music and play several different recorders. We enjoy doing these outreach programs and the students seem to enjoy them.
Does Spanhove anticipate that the student of today might be in the touring recorder quartet of tomorrow?
”It's a hard life,” he says, laughing. “You have to be married to it. But it's also fun and something we love doing. You're always learning, and there is always more wonderful music.”
IF YOU GO
WHO: The Flanders Recorder Quartet
WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: John C. Evans Hall, Connecticut College, Mohegan Avenue, New London
HOW MUCH: $22 ($20 seniors, $11 students)
FOR MORE INFO: 439-2787,
www.onstage.conncoll.edu
