Featured Album June 2026: Passacaglia "La Parisienne"

At the recent Saltaire Recorder Weekend, we were wowed by the 25th anniversary performance of recorder ensemble Fontanella. One of that group's members, Annabel Knight, has also been busy with another longstanding project and the results can be heard on this month's Featured Album. Passacaglia have been at the forefront of baroque chamber music in England for some years, and on this latest album on their own Barn Cottage Records, they are following in the footsteps of cousins Pierre and Anne Danican-Philidor as they make their way towards the French capital...

La Parisienne: Pierre & Anne Danican Philidor Suites & Pieces
Passacaglia

OUR FEATURED ALBUM FOR JUNE 2026

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From the artist's press release:

La Parisienne is Passacaglia’s journey into the instrumental music of Pierre & Anne Danican-Philidor – fabulously engaging, melodic, expressive music with uncommon depth, but that’s largely still unknown.

For nearly 150 years, the Danican-Philidor family stood at the centre of French musical life. Through the closely connected yet distinctive voices of cousins Pierre and Anne Danican-Philidor, La Parisienne captures a moment of transition in French music from the cultural hot-house of Versailles to the more cosmopolitan salons of Paris.

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Why The Early Music Shop loves "La Parisienne":

Exciting music often comes about at times of change. The cousins Pierre and Anne Danican-Philidor were just two members of a musical dynasty in Baroque-era France, whose compositional style and musical innovation coincided with a new era in French culture – a shift of focus from Versailles to Paris as the artistic centre of then-modern French life. Harking back to the grandeur of Louis XIV’s court, but looking ahead to new times, the composers’ repertoire explores both familiar themes and new ideas.

On this, Passacaglia’s new album, the celebrated Baroque ensemble arrives in Paris in the latest of a cross-European discography which, in recent years, has seen them explore Germany (2022’s Prussian Blue with music by CPE Bach) and Italy (2017’s Vivaldi Undercover). There is a pleasing synergy between the musical innovation of the Philidor cousins and the musicians of Passacaglia, who are innovators and torchbearers in their own right. Flautist and recorder player Annabel Knight is busy guiding the next generation of early musicians, notably at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and harpsichordist Robin Bigwood drives the promotion of historical music as owner and producer with the record label Barn Cottage Records. Here on La Parisienne, it’s straightforward yet stylish interpretations of the Philidor repertoire taking centre stage.

From the very opening bars, it’s quite clear which country we’re in – the multitude of French baroque ornaments and flattement (finger vibrato) which are so indicative of this style are performed with skill and care, from the top of the ensemble down. The group guides the listener through dance tunes from Allemandes to Sarabandes to Gavottes, each with distinct characters and stylistic inflections.

By shifting between traverso flute and recorders, melody player Annabel Knight holds the listener’s attention – the soft, smooth tones of the flute contrast with the energy and bite of the recorders, while the choice to record at French Baroque pitch (a392) gives the whole recording a real warmth and depth.

Completing the ensemble, guitarist and theorbo player Eligio Luis Quinteiro offers sensitive accompaniment, while Reiko Ichise’s viola da gamba joins forces with Bigwood’s harpsichord to complete an impressive continuo section. The ensemble is tight and expressive, with the triple-accompanist approach adding to the warm sound this album offers. Brief solo passages allow the players moments in the spotlight, with Ichise’s gamba virtuosity shining in a Rigaudon in Pierre’s Sixiéme Suite, providing a lively and punchy sound which is one of the disc’s highlights.

Other moments of note include the vivid imagery in Anne’s Les Vents where the music evokes strong imagery of the wind, and the Sonata pour la Flute à bec, from the same pen, which is remarkably the only known work in the French Baroque tradition written expressly for the recorder. Breaking away from the dance forms of the other suites, this work perhaps has more structural similarities with the high-Baroque sonata form, with two twisty fugues introducing a sound not explored elsewhere on the disc.

With thoughtful sleeve notes and a striking package design with a modern image signifying the journey towards Paris, this is a compelling project bringing this lesser-known repertoire to new ears. La Parisienne offers a brilliant stop on the Passacaglia discography’s European tour – who knows where their next destination will be…

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La Parisienne is available from The Early Music Shop online or in-store!

Click here to order now!

Click below to watch recorder player and flautist Annabel Knight introduce the album in a short album trailer: