Salut! Baroque’s latest album – its twelfth – is an absolute delight, not least because it features Jane Sheldon’s pure bell-like soprano on some of the tracks. Others feature nimble recorders and flutes in various combinations and, if that weren’t enough, harpsichordist Monika Kornel nails François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mystérieuses.

Now in its 31st year, the ensemble’s co-founders, recorderist Sally Melhuish and cellist Tim Blomfield, have produced a collection which features vocal works by Baroque giants Bach, Handel, Purcell and Telemann alongside instrumental pieces by lesser known composers, as well as a stunning duet for Sheldon and soprano Anna Fraser, Luigi Rossi’s Due labra di rose. Blomfield’s informative liner notes provide an entertaining background as always.

An album to brighten your day, it starts delightfully with Sheldon singing Purcell’s O! fair Cedaria. But Sheldon aside, the winds are really the stars of the show featuring in three key works. Perhaps the most charming of these is the Sonata in Imitation of Birds by William Williams, a Westminster Abbey choirboy in the 17th century.

Melhuish and Hans-Dieter Michatz perform William McGibbon’s Sonata No. 3 in B minor for two voice flutes, and they are joined by Alana Blackburn’s for Johann Joachim Quantz’s Trio in F for transverse flutes. Quantz famously taught the instrument to Frederick the Great. Baroque oboist Anna Starr combines beautifully with Sheldon for Bach’s aria Gott versorget alles Leben. 

Production is excellent. This is a collection of a musical quality equal to anything you’ll find from European or US ensembles.

Listen on Bandcamp

Title: Musica Poetica
Works: Works by Couperin, Rossi, Purcell et al.
Performer: Salut! Baroque