The Montreal-based ensemble Flute Alors! takes a journey into the musical world of Renaissance Italy on its new album, Scherzi forastieri.

The program features instrumental versions of canzonas (songs) from Giovanni Antonio Cangiasi's collection of the same name, along with madrigals by Cipriano de Rore, Girolamo Dalla Casa and Nicolo Corradini, plus a detour to Germany with the Fantasy for 4- part organ by Samuel Scheidt on Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's madrigal, Io son ferito ahi lasso, arranged for a recorder quartet.

The invention of music printing at the dawn of the 16th century paved the way for the publication of vocal music scores, including chansons, motets, and madrigals, facilitating their performance on instruments. Publishers saw an opportunity and produced adaptations of vocal compositions for various ensembles and instruments, or consorts. As Flute Alors! demonstrates on this recording, many of those ensembles consisted of instruments of different sizes that belonged to the same family.

Dynamic and versatile, Montreal- based ensemble Flute Alors! is composed of four recorder players, well-established in the Early Music scene of Quebec: Vincent Lauzer, Marie-Laurence Primeau, Alexa Raine-Wright, and Caroline Tremblay.