It's hard to believe that the editions by Frans Brüggen (1934-2014) of Bach's works for solo violin and solo cello, transcribed for solo recorder, are now forty years old. But it was in the 1970s that he undertook this remarkable work, and committed it to vinyl. Flautist Bolette Roed has taken a dive into the world of transcriptions – and we can't repeat this enough: the art of transcription, of re-writing, of re-arrangement, of recycling, of transposition, is an integral part of the baroque repertoire, and in particular of baroque itself! Roed has given us the complete recording of what Brüggen transcribed for recorder: eleven movements of the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (because not everything can reasonably be transcribed for recorder), and the first three suites initially written for cello. For the violin works, Roed has used a whole panoply of different flutes, so as to keep within Bach's original keys; and so she alternates between alto recorders,"fourth" flutes (that is, a flute in B-flat, the fourth in question being calculated from the standard recorder of the baroque era, in F), and a "fifth" flute (see above). These sounds are radically different from one another, of course, which is made quite clear in the recording. As for the Suites for Cello, these are played on a "voice flute", an instrument between tenor and alto, with some very deep low notes. But its range corresponds to the range of a soprano voice... It goes without saying that the move from violin (or cello) to the recorder gives the listener the impression of hearing brand-new works: but they are very much by the Cantor, note for note. © SM/Qobuz