Recording
Double, Double Toil & Trouble | Palisander
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FIRST PUBLISHED 13 FEB 2026
Palisander’s new album, Double, Double Toil & Trouble, features repertoire spanning 900 years, inspired by the mystical and magical. The recorder quartet are passionate ambassadors of their instrument, and this recording encompasses a huge variety of recorder consort settings, using instruments from the six-inch Garklein to the six-foot Contrabass, and everything in between.
The featured repertoire balances historically informed interpretations alongside new compositions and arrangements, created specifically for the ensemble. Authentic Renaissance gems by Casulana, Rore, Rognoni, Holborne and Sweelinck are featured alongside familiar baroque classics such as Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor and Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata, arranged for Palisander. The ensemble partnered with BBC Radio 3/NCEM for the 2021 Young Composers Award and the winning piece in the 18-25 year old category, Kagura Suite by Delyth Field, features on this disc.
Palisander are known for their theatrical approach in performance, and partner here with actor Connor Byrne (Tracy Beaker, London’s Burning) for the premiere recording of Miriam Monaghan’s Kepler’s Planets: music and poetry inspired by Renaissance astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler’s study of the Music of the Spheres.
PALISANDER
Tabea Debus
Lydia Gosnell
Miriam Monaghan
Caoimhe de Paor
with actor Connor Byrne
TRACKS
Johann Sebastian Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565*
Broadside Ballad (1682) The Tryals and Condemnation of Three Notorious Witches*
Jan Pietersz Sweelinck (1621) Englesche Fortuyn*
Hildegard von Bingen O virtus Sapientiae*
Diego Ortiz Recercada segunda*
Delyth Field Kagura Suite for recorders
(NCEM/BBC Radio 3 Young Composers Award)
i. Kami Mai | ii. Sparrrow Dance | iii. Gion Geisha
Henry Purcell Suite from The Fairy Queen:
i. Hornpipe | ii. If Love’s a Sweet Passion | iii. Jig
Maddalena Casulana Il vostro dipartir
Anon. (12th century) Naturalis concordia vocum cum planetis
Miriam Monaghan Kepler’s Planets:
i. Saturn | ii. Jupiter | iii. Mars | iv. Terre | v. Venus | vi. Mercury
Narrated by Connor Byrne
Giuseppe Tartini The Devil’s Trill*
Cipriano de Rore / Riccardo Rognoni Anchor che col partire
Traditional Balkan arr. Palisander Mandilatos & Omorfoula
Antony Holborne The Fairie Round
*arranged for Palisander by Miriam Monaghan
Supported by grants from Angel Early Music and the Golsoncott Foundation, CDs are available from Palisander’s website, and the recording can also be found on all major streaming platforms. Hear them live in Beverley, Yorkshire, in a family concert on 17 March, and join them at Hawkwood College from 27 to 29 March for a long weekend of tuition and chamber music, open to recorder players of all standards.
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