PRIVATE PASSION - Quantz Flute Sonatas composed for Frederick the Great

Rachel Brown/Baroque Flute

Uppernote Recordings 2009

This is a beautiful recording of 7 Quantz Flute Sonatas, played by people who really know what they are doing! The instruments used are all modern copies of original instruments used in Quantz’s time and Rachel Brown is one of the most accomplished musicians in our times. Her CV reads as a very impressive list of English early music ensembles and it is interesting to note that she began her career as a modern flute player in an Opera Orchestra….please note any keen students dreaming of an early specialization on baroque flute - it is not always the way!

Rachel is largely responsible for the rekindling of interest in, and republishing of, the works of Quantz following her hugely successful recording of Quantz Concerti and Sonatas of a decade ago. The Sonatas recorded here are a new selection of her personal favourites, and are technically brilliant and very exciting to listen to. Any student struggling to enthuse him or herself with the too often badly played Concerto in G should listen to playing like this and rethink the whole thing.

What would we flute players have done without the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, who paid Quantz a bonus for each of the 300 Concertos and Sonatas he wrote. If only more composers, especially nowadays , had such patronage!...

Rachel Brown is joined on this CD by a very accomplished group of continuo specialists who play a variety of instruments, including harpsichord, fortepiano, cello and theorbo.

Rosamund Plummer has extensive performing experience in Australia, UK and USA, and is currently Principal Piccolo with the Sydney Symphony, and combines a busy family life with her work as a part time lecturer in Flute at the Conservatorium of Music.