Turner and Munrow
BACK TO GROUND Just about every child has a go at it since, after all, it?s only a toy?isn?t it? Such common perceptions of the recorder are hardly surprising: walk into any primary classroom and you are bound to find, somewhere, a collection of sticky, gummed up plastic recorders that would have the Health and Safety Executive down on the school like a ton of bricks. Yet, although in years gone by it was a popular, virtuoso instrument, its decline has largely gone unnoticed by the musical public, that is until one meets John Turner who, during his professional career as a top performer, has been at the forefront of its revival. John Woodford reports I interviewed recorderist John Turner in his music room, an octagonal extension to his Manchester house that is topped by a wonderful weather vane folly, a fantasy that includes a viola da gamba, flying pegs, a recorder, and all sorts of other music...