Lucie Horsch: My Baroque Top Five

Handel: "As with rosy steps" from 'Theodora' – Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

What makes Lorraine Hunt Lieberson so special as a singer is that her voice feels like it's there purely to convey that emotion as an essential part of her singing. It's as if she's talking to you – it's how I like singing to be. You can compare it to the recorder, too, which is similarly direct: there’s no embouchure or reed in the way and you breathe directly into the instrument. That’s why a recorder can sound very vulnerable and that’s also what I like in this singing, the fact that she dares to sound vulnerable. It's what I love about Handel, too: even if you don't necessarily follow all the words, you get the emotion through the music.

Bach: "So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen" from St Matthew Passion – John Eliot Gardiner

I love this duet from the St Matthew Passion, right from the middle of the piece. You hear the colours of the two voices melt together with this lyrical melody that's then punctuated by the chorus's interjections. It's one of the great things about the work in general that you hear every word reflected in the music. You can listen to it every year because you discover new things all the time. I really like Sir John Eliot Gardiner's taste in singers on the one hand, and what you hear in the music with him is the grandeur: the music stays intact, without being simplified or being put into a fancy collar or jacket. You just feel like you're listening to Bach in the most original way possible.

Telemann: "Völker-Ouverture" – Ensemble Masque

I heard Ensemble Masque play Telemann in concert and the spirit they brought to it made it really special. Telemann is sometimes just regarded basically as a lesser version of Bach, but his music is entirely different. He was so versatile in terms of style – using lots of influence from different nations, for example – and there's also a lot of ligtheartedness in his music. Here you have this work that takes the characteristics of different countries, and it's funny to us to this day, since you can still hear what he was getting at. And in this performance you really get that humour.

Leonardo Leo: "Ombra cara, ombra adorata" from 'Catone in Utica' – Ann Hallenberg

I discovered Neapolitan music only recently when I was asked to present a "Napoli" programme at a festival. I did four different recorder concertos from Naples. It's fantastic music, but it's very rarely performed. These were all composers – Mancini, Sari, Leo – that were famous for their operas and you can hear the influence of opera in their recorder music: abrupt contrasts, the sense of atmosphere, the dissonances, moments that sound like arias and recitatives. It's music designed to engage. Ann Hallenberg is a fantastic singer and has a precise technique where you can hear every note. But while she has everything under control, she nonetheless pushes to the limits – which makes her performance very inspiring.

Rebel: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major – Andrew Manze

Jean-Féry Rebel is of course best known for his piece 'Les elemens' for string orchestra. I remember first hearing in in Hong Kong. It was part of a programme in which I played some concertos and I wished this piece had a recorder part! It's such fantastic music, and I don't think there's another Baroque piece that goes so far into atonality. I've just started playing his Violin Sonatas on the recorder and they have a similar expressive freedom. They have plenty of French subtlety and nuance, but also the exuberance of the Italian style, which makes them exciting and virtuosic. But although virtuosic music is often very for one particular instrument, these lend themselves very well to being played on the recorder.

Bonus Choice – Marais: Couplets de folies

I love this piece because it allows so much freedom for the musician. It's essentially just a scheme of chords and, because it's called 'La folie', you can basically improvise anything. It's been used by so many different composers right through to the 20th century – even by Rachmaninoff – and each piece starts off with just the scheme of harmonies before going off to explore all the different possibilities. What I particularly like about Marais's piece is that it abandons all those rules of French Baroque at that time. In Baroque music generally improvisation was very important, and people would have added their own variations when performing. This idea helps me to defend the fact that I'm playing it here on the recorder rather than the viola da gamba!