Artful complexity from the recorder

“Extraordinary,” “towering,” “beyond compare”: Critics can’t find enough superlatives for recorder virtuosa Marion Verbruggen, held in worldwide esteem for her mastery of an instrument many think of as little more than a child’s plaything.

A reviewer in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel marveled at the complexity of sounds that Verbruggen is able to coax from what is essentially “just a whistle attached to a tube.”

Verbruggen, a native of the Netherlands, will be in Los Angeles this weekend to perform with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra in “Water Music,” a program of works by Handel, Vivaldi, Biber and Telemann, on Saturday at Zipper Concert Hall in L.A. and Sunday at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, with Martin Haselbock conducting and Baroque flutist Stephen Schultz.

“I love the sound of the recorder,” Verbruggen said by phone from Rhode Island, where she was preparing to play with the Foundling Baroque Orchestra. “Many people start playing it and then they go on to a ‘real’ instrument. But you can do so much with sounds in combination with articulation and phrasing. You can do anything with intonation. It’s as close to being a singer as you can be.”

Verbruggen has won the first International Recorder Competition in Brugge, Belgium, the Nicolai Prize for the Performances of Contemporary Dutch Music and the Erwin Bodky Award for Early Music. She guest teaches at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and gives master classes and workshops throughout the world. Among her many recordings are “The Art of the Recorder” and her transcriptions of the J.S. Bach Cello Suites.

During her performance with the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Verbruggen will switch between alto and soprano recorders made from hardwoods such as palisander and grenadilla to match each composer’s work with just the right sound and “different quality of speaking.”

Verbruggen’s passion for the recorder began early. Her musically minded parents had each of their six children begin studying an instrument at age 5. She has some advice for parents today who may be considering the recorder as a way to encourage their own children to take an interest in music.

“Economically, it’s very clever that there are plastic recorders, but a good wooden instrument is so much more fun to start with,” Verbruggen said. And make it a new one: “My sister played on mine before me and the dog did some stuff to it. It wasn’t so good. Later I got a better instrument.”

Concert information: www.MusicaAngelica.org.

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-- Lynne Heffley