Michala Petri has done great things for the recorder, helping to bring it back centre-stage after its 19th-century eclipse by the flute and clarinet, and here she takes the process on further. However, "Café Vienna" is a misleading modish title for her collarboration with Lars Hannibal; what she have done is to bring a chamber-music genre out of the shadow, and also to extend-through new arrangements- the extremely narrow repertoire for their unusual instrumental combination, with Beethoven`s unassuming little pieces in their collection being actually the least interesting. Far more noteworthy are the gravely spacious Fantasise sur un air national Anglais-“ God save the King", that is by Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841), the intricate Introduction, Theme and Variations by Ernest Krähmer (1795-1837), and the "Variations on an Austrian Folk tune" by Carl Scheindienst. Some of the works were written for violin and guitar or mandolin, and some for a rare Hungarian instrument called the csakan. . Michael Church March 2010