Recording Information...
Recorded on the 2 - 3 August 2005 at the Netherlands Hervormde Kerk Kolham
Producer: Jos Boerland
Blance Engineer, Editing and Mastering: Jos Boerland
Design: Hugo Bosgraaf
Text: Henk Pieter Berkman
English Translation: Rudy Bremer
From the Booklet Notes :
His playing is able to evoke deep emotions. Listen to his rendering of Johann Sebastien Bach's Partita for fulte solo, or to the peace and space in the improvised Tibet. In both cases we enter an esthetic domain offering an agreeable sojourn. Infectious merriment and freedom of care are supplied by compositions like the medieval dance Saltarello and the relaxing Heaven, a composition of Moelker's own. Dazzling virtuosity is demonstrated in the theme-and-variations by Jacob van Eyck Esq. entitled Wat zal men op den avond doen (i.e. What Shal We Do Tonight). Energy and power are further important elements of his playing, most clearly so in the ricercata by the Italien Renaissance composer Aurelio Virgiliano and in Talud, in which the quiet start gives birth to a multicoloured one-man funk band.
For this CD, Ronald Moelker gathered a number of excellent musicians, with whom he foregrounds another aspect of his art: improvisation and interaction. He enters into a swinging dialogue with double bass and singers. Tibetan bowls and tinchas float past. Congas and synthesizer sounds provide a supple foundation for Heaven.
And then there is the recorder, appearing to us in all kinds of forms on this CD. Ronald Moelker knows how to give shape to the special effects of all those timbres that a recorder can produce. This he does with the aid of his splendid collection of instruments, created by builders like Adriana Breukink, Frans Twaalfhoven and Sverre Kolberg. And this may well be the most important thing: we are hearing an inspired recorder player on an adventurous journey along his recorders.
Henk Pieter Berkman