This attractive release is one of three solo discs promoted recently by Chandos under the umbrella 'emerging talent' (the other two artists involved being soprano Sara Stowe and harpsichordist Sophie Yates). It is a good idea for sure, and not just from the marketing point of view; early music can certainly benefit from turning things round occasionally so that a showcased performer tops the bill rather than an opus number or a quaintly old-fashioned title. In this case, however, the featured artist is hardly an unknown quantity. Rachel Brown's sensitive and elegant flute-playing has been with us for a while now, and although this is the first time she has starred to this degree, the impressive nature of her previous appearances on a number of orchestral and chamber recordings should have been enough to have placed her in the 'established' category already.
Her all-French programme gains most of its substance from two Leclair sonatas placed at the beginning and the end, and from the fifth concert from Rameau's Pieces de clavecin en concerts in the middle. Not only are these the best music, they also get the best performances, with Brown combining taste, passion and a sort of languid, expansive freedom that seems the very essence of good baroque manners. In between come an athletic though comparatively straightforward sonata by Blavet, a suite by La Barre whose main interest lies in a vigorous Chaconne, and a collection of Hotteterre arrangements of vocal originals. In these last, I felt a touch more emotion could have been admitted, more of a sense of a missing text created; but even so, from beginning to end this is still a disc of high-quality flute-playing—expressive, controlled, easy on the ear, and crisply accompanied too.'