This monumental set of recordings, originally on Das Alte Werk LP, collects Frans Brüggen performing a variety of pre-baroque, baroque and rococco works for recorder(s). Frans Bruggen put the recorder on the map as a solo instrument, and no one before or since has made such a huge impact, nor had Bruggen's musicality and expressiveness.
Once the world's most famous recorder player, today Frans Brüggen is considered among the foremost experts in the performance of eighteenth century music. He studied the recorder with Kees Otten and flute at the Amsterdam Muzieklyceum. In addition, he took courses in musicology at the University of Amsterdam. At the age of 21, he was appointed professor at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and later held position as Erasmus Professor at Harvard University and Regent's Professor at the University of Berkeley, making him one of the the youngest musical scholars of the time though still remaining, as Luciano Berio wrote, "a musician who is not an archaeologist but a great artist".