Beautiful recorder riders throughout

Even the title of this issue, Eleven partly very beautiful recorder playersreveals it: Here, traditional customs are viewed with a wink. You could have guessed this from the composer's name: Ruedi Häusermann is part of the Ländlerkapelle Eidgenössisch Moos, which is known for shaking up local traditions - if need be with pendulum yodeling, bell tamping or juchzer automaton.

Ruedi Häusermann's Ländler were written for soprano recorder plus another instrument in C (such as violin or a second recorder) and supplemented with chord symbols. Formally, their three- or four-part form with complicated repetitions already places some demands on the player. The Ländler show melodic ingenuity; the bouncy cheerfulness can be accompanied by melancholy, and Häusermann also likes to leave the I-IV-V boundaries often used in folk music. Metrically, there are equally challenging moments, for example in E New Oldwhich was composed as a Zwiefacher.

The enclosed CD was recorded by the Eidg. Moos band with recorder, bass clarinet and accordion. It testifies to the joy and wit of playing, even if not exactly to classical training on the instrument; slight uncoordinatedness on the recorder, unusual trill stops or intonationally close to the Alphorn-Fa must be ignored. The phrasing could be more clearly supported dynamically. On the other hand, it is nice that the recorder part on the CD has been melodically altered by nuances. And the play-along version in what is described as a "pleasantly slow tempo" and simpler form is particularly praiseworthy.

So the title can be changed: Eleven consistently beautiful Ländler. "Recommended by the Confederation", as it says on the very last cover page.

Ruedi Häusermann: Elf zum teilweise sehr schöne Blockflötenländler, with drawings by Giuseppe Reichmuth and CD, G. H. 15007, Fr. 24.80, Hug Musikverlage, Zurich 2016