Kathryn Bennetts & Peter Bowman - Recorder Duo

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Bennetts and Bowman
"The recorder-playing throughout the evening displayed musicianship and virtuosity of the highest order along with the adventurous and challenging programming we have learned to expect from this outstanding duo. I came away with a sense of privilege at having been present at the first performance of (Gavin Bryars') Two Lines"
Anthony Purnell in The Recorder Magazine, Autumn 2007

Biographies

Kathryn BennettsPeter Bowman

Projects

Response to Bach

Commissioning new works for recorder duo

To celebrate their 20 year working partnership Kathryn and Peter embarked on a project to commission new works for recorder duet.

The Concept

To arrange the fifteen Two-part Inventions of J.S. Bach for soprano (descant) and bass recorders and to commission seven composers to write a "Response to Bach" — one new work for each of the seven pairs of inventions. Bach composed his Two-part Inventions as study pieces for his son Wilhelm Friedrich to provide "... a clear method not only of learning to play cleanly in two parts but also with further practice to proceed correctly and well to three obbligato parts and also to acquire at the same time not only good inventions but also the ability to develop them well and above all to cultivate a cantabile style of playing and to gain from the beginning a strong foretaste of composition."

New works for Recorder Duo by:

Gavin Bryars

Nicola LeFanu

Roderick Watkins

Michael Wolters

New works were commissioned with assistance from Canterbury Christ Church University and audience donations

The Quarter-tone Recorder

An ongoing project begun in 1995 in which we have explored the microtonal potential of the recorder. The work has resulted in the publication of The Quarter-tone Recorder Manual (Moeck Ed 2084) and the CD A Journey Among Travellers

Kathryn und Peter durchqueren die Antarktis

(Kathryn and Peter Cross Antarctica)

A radio play and stage production

by Michael Wolters and Marcus Dross

The music for recorder duo, composed by Michael Wolters, is based on a cross-section through Antarctica along the route taken by the explorer Robert Scott and his team. The rising and falling contours of the bed-rock and the ice sheet are transformed into a 35-minute duet composed entirely in eighth-tones for alto and tenor recorders.

Recordings

Flights of Fancy
QTR CD06-03

A Journey Amoung Travellers
QTR CD07-98

Flights of Fancy Journey
  • In Manus Tuas Domine - John Baldwin
  • Pertaining to Trees - Geoff Cox
  • Fantasia 1 Orlando - Gibbons
  • Fantasia 2 Orlando - Gibbons
  • Puff Adder - Maud Hodson
  • Fantasia: Il Lamento - Thomas Morley
  • Fantasia: La Girandola - Thomas Morley
  • Al di Là del Buio - Emanuela Ballio
  • Fantasia 4 - Giovanni Coprario
  • Tricorder - Mark Bokowiec
  • A Duo - John Baldwin
  • Duplicator II - Vítor Rua

A Journey Among Travellers is one of a number of pieces written by Donald Bousted in collaboration with Kathryn Bennetts and Peter Bowman. Their project, which has involved the formulation of quarter-tone fingerings for the recorder has been published in the form of a manual, The Quarter-Tone Recorder Manual (Moeck Nr. 2084) which prepares the advanced player for the performance of structured quarter-tone music.

Click here to listen to an excerpt from "Sonata"

Click here to hear Kathryn Bennetts and Peter Bowman play an excerpt from "Sonata" from A Journey Among Travellers by Donald Bousted

Click here to listen to an excerpt from "Sonata"

Click here to hear an excerpt from "In Manuas Tuas Domine" by John Baldwin from Flights of Fancy

Reviews

"The performances have a timeless quality... Wonders on so modest a scale tend to be in short supply these days."
The Wire
"Bennetts and Bowman are a truly incredible pair on recorders - the sounds are uncanny, wild and a million miles from your expectations. Bousted's music has great elegance, wit and charm"
The Newsletter of the British Harry Partch Society
"Remarkable recorder music ... made such an impression ... really new and significant ... breathtaking, edge of seat atmosphere ... totally gripping and convincing"
The American Recorder
"Their intonation is superb and their tone is well-matched. The recording is compelling and ought to hold a place in every contemporary recorder player's collection."
The Recorder Magazine
"Bereits beim ersten Hören wird deutlich, dass Bennetts und Bowman ein fest eingespieltes Interpretenpaar bilden. So findet man ein optimales Gleichgewicht zwischen den beiden Instrumenten, eine Selbstverständlichkeit in der Verwendung von Vierteltongriffen sowie eine Präzision im zeitlichen Verlauf. Durch die enge Zusammenarbeit zwischen Komponist und Interpreten ist eine überzeugende Fassung entstanden, bei der die Intentionen des Komponisten voll zum Ausdruck kommen."
Zeitschrift SAJM (Schweiz)
"The sonorities of the tenor and bass transported the listener to a different plane of consciousness." (….)
"The recorder playing throughout the evening displayed musicianship and virtuosity of the highest order along with the adventurous and challenging programming we have learned to expect from this outstanding duo. I came away with a sense of privilege at having been present at the first performance of "Two Lines"… "
The Recorder Magazine, Autumn 2007

Publications

Time Pieces

Time Pieces

Four volumes for descant and treble recorder of arrangements from medieval to modern. Selected for the Associated Board

by Kathryn Bennetts and Peter Bowman.

Quarter-tone Recorder Manual

Quarter-tone Recorder Manual

By Kathryn Bennetts, Donald Bousted and Peter Bowman

Moeck Edition 2084

Doctor Downing's Recorder Technique DoctorsDoctor Downing's Recorder Technique Doctors

Doctor Downing's Recorder Technique Doctors

By Peter Bowman

Fun and Games with the RecorderFun and Games with the Recorder

Fun and Games with the Recorder

Ensemble pieces which supplement the Fun and Games series of Tutor and Tune books for Soprano and Alto Recorder arranged by Peter Bowman.

CD Distribution

Australasia: Orpheus Music

PO Box 1363, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia.

Tel/Fax: (02) 6772 2205

www.orpheusmusic.com.au

UK: Fand Music

The Barony, 16 Sandringham Road, Petersfield, Hampshire, UK, GU32 2AA

Tel./Fax.: + 44 (0)1730 267341

www.fandmusic.com

News

It is three years since the "Response to Bach" project was launched on 24th October 2006 at a concert held in St Gregory's, the performance centre of the music department at Canterbury Christ Church University which included two world premieres and the first complete performance of our arrangements of Bach's Two-part Inventions.

We have commissioned a total of five new works for the "Response to Bach" project:

On Reflection (2006) for tenor and bass recorders by Roderick Watkins

Intervention (2006) for alto and tenor recorders by Michael Wolters

One Voice in Two Parts (2006) for soprano and bass recorders by Nicola LeFanu

Two Lines (2007) for tenor and bass recorders by Gavin Bryars

J. S. B. Readdressed (2007) for tenor and bass recorders by Hans-Martin Linde

Engagements in 2009

4th April: St George's German Lutheran Church, London
Works by: Demantius, Hier S., Mancinus, Bach, Wolters, LeFanu, Watkins, Linde, Bryars

18th April: Tudeley Church, Tonbridge
Works by: Demantius, Hier S., Mancinus, Bach, Wolters, LeFanu, Watkins, Linde, Bryars, Jacob

7th June: 15th Century evangelical "Kleine Kirche" (Little Church) Burgsteinfurt
Works by: Demantius, Hier S., Mancinus, Bach, Wolters, LeFanu, Watkins, Linde, Bryars, Jacob

8th-9th June: Folkwang Hochschule, Essen
Workshops of Baroque and contemporary music. 9th June: evening concert with works by: Wolters, LeFanu, Watkins, Linde, Bryars.

11th June: Düsseldorf
Theatre project by Marcus Dross, Michael Wolters etc.
10-11am Music by: Michael Wolters
17.35 - 18.00 Music by: Bach, Mancinus, Telemann, Bryars

13th June: Düsseldorf, The English Library
Theatre project by Marcus Dross, Michael Wolters etc.
14.30 - 16.30 in English Library
Music by: Telemann, Dowland, Carcassi, Handel

28th June: Dusseldorf
Theatre project by Marcus Dross, Michael Wolters etc.
20.00 - 22.00
Music by: Telemann etc.

4th-7th September: The Friars, Aylesbury, Kent
Residential course for advanced players - Italian Music

20th October: Canterbury Festival, St. Gregory's Church 1p.m.
Works by: Demantius, Hier S., Mancinus, Bach, Wolters, LeFanu, Watkins, Linde, Bryars, Jacob

Finchcocks 2008

Our educational project organised in conjunction with Finchcocks musical museum was a huge success. It was a celebration of Arnold Dolmetsch's role in the early music and particularly recorder revival and involved 33 players aged between 7 and 70. Our evening concert with Broadwood Trust prize-winning harpsichordist Paveł Siwczak reflected concert programmes from the early Haslemere Festivals and included Bach's Italian Concerto, the Trio Sonata in B-flat (BWV 1039), the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903) plus works by Woodcock, Purcell and fantasias for the lute played by Michael Fields.

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