HANNIBAL BLUE : Hannibal / Petri ★★★

This album of original compositions and arrangements by the Danish guitarist Lars Hannibal is a family affair. It's crossover with a touch of New Age easy listening. The majority of the pieces are for guitar and recorder, the latter played by the world-renowned Michala Petri (the former Mrs Hannibal) whose recording career has spanned more than forty years. Hannibal has an enjoyably crisp style on solo guitar tracks like Weyse's Quiet is the Night and I know a lark's nest – the latter a Carl Nielsen composition. Petri joins him in arrangements of eight Danish folk songs including Nielsen's Wond'rous air of evening. Petri's solo recorder playing on The Turk, a Hannibal composition, sounds as fresh and nimble as it did decades ago. Hannibal's quartet compositions like Autumn Rain and Springtime Sun, where he and Petri are joined by their twenty-something children Agnete (cello) and Amalie (vocals) are amiable but insubstantial. Birmingham Evening Post & Midlands Classical Music