Woodpeckers Recorder Quartet

When four friends create an ensemble where their biggest love is playing Baroque music on recorders, one has to get creative. There is a serious lack of original Baroque repertoire for this combination, and that’s how ‘Borrowed, not Stolen…’ was brought into being.

The Woodpeckers’ journey began 17 years ago while they were all living in Stockholm. Bach’s wonderful ‘Art of Fugue’ being an integral part of the programming in their first concerts. The idea has developed over the years into the format that you find on this recording.

They have ‘borrowed’ music of all kinds and turned it into their own: some arrangements came into being through improvising and playing around in rehearsals, while others were commissioned by them, and some were already in existence and too good to leave out or tamper with. Despite their wanderings in life, the four of them are still deeply rooted in their childhood traditions stemming from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Ireland, and some of their favorite folk tunes, many of which date from the Baroque era or even earlier, appear on this album, alongside works by Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi.