If one were to be fussy, it could be objected that ''works for concertante recorder'' would have been a more accurate title for this generously-filled disc than ''recorder concertos''. All five works here are fairly well known and exist in alternative recordings, but together they would give quite a good idea of the diversity of styles current in the early eighteenth century to anyone beginning to explore the period, ranging as they do from the elder Scarlatti's old-fashioned Italian manner to the Gallicism of Naudot or Telemann's amalgam not merely of French and Italian tastes but of more exotic elements.
The Telemann suite for treble recorder, by far the most substantial item here, is given a workmanlike and musical, rather than an inspiring, performance: Linde takes it very 'straight', with almost no spontaneous variants except in the da capo of ''Les Plaisirs'' and in the second Passe-pied, though in general his virtuosity is not in question, his articulation in ''Rejouissance'' could have been clearer, and the single strings (whose internal balance in the Polonaise is unsatisfactory) are on the loud side for the recorder in the Overture. The acoustics had apparently changed for the session with the bright and thoroughly enjoyable Naudot (which incidentally is played on the fiautino, not the treble recorder as stated—there has been a mix-up with the preceding Vivaldi item): here Linde reveals a sense of gaiety which seems to elude him in his sober but neat performance of the 'London' Sammartini's concerto for 'fifth flute', whose central Siciliano I found too bumpy and lacking in grace. There are aching voids in the harmony of the little Vivaldi concerto's Largo if the harpsichord does not play; and in the 'trio' of Telemann's ''Les Plaisirs'' the bass line has been put up an octave, eliminating the harpsichord continuo.'