After many years of happy playing my venerable wooden Aura A5A alto and my plastic workhorse Yamaha YRA-312BII alto, I decided to upgrade to a Canta 2246 alto with F/F#-keys.
It took me some months to really appreciate the sound of the Canta, but after two years of intensive playing, I can say that I am very happy with this instrument.
On all aspects: build quality, look and feel, playability, fingering, sound quality and price, the Canta 2246 alto is an excellent recorder.
On the positive side:
Fingering: the low E has the usual Baroque 01, but lacks the well-known Baroque alternative 023. I am a fervent 023-player, but I have discovered that I can do without it very well.
Keys: the F/F#-keys are positioned 'the other way around'. Seen from the player, the F-key sits right and the F#-key sits left. Initially this is very counter-intuitive, but after a while it appears to be a very clever idea of Mollenhauer.
First of all, the F is very easy to reach, as it sits exactly under the pinkie finger.
Second, pressing the F requires pressing only one key-spring at a time, and not both springs simultaneously as on most keyed recorders. Pressing F# requires a substantial movement of the pinkie finger to the left and pressing two springs simultaneously (thus requiring more force), but as F# is less often played than F this is a far better solution.
Third: the F#-key has a small roller in it, and this roller enables the player (after a bit of training) to play a perfectly smooth legato from F to F# and back.
However, on the negative side, and having nothing to do with the Canta itself:
Above everything else, I buy a recorder for its sound quality, and for that reason good sound samples are of paramount importance. In my experience, the sound samples as provided by Mollenhauer (and most other recorders makers) and Thomann on their respective websites are next to useless for making a buying decision. As a consequence, I think our suppliers have some homework to do.
And.... being so happy with my Canta alto, I recently decided to upgrade my Yamaha plastic tenor YRT-304B II, to -guess what?- a Canta C/C# tenor.
This Canta tenor made me just as happy as the Canta alto did two years ago, apart from one point: the F-key did not close completely. As I did not want to buy a brand new recorder only to receive a repaired one, I decided to return it. Leaving me with the question: if not my beloved Canta tenor, which tenor shall I buy?
By-the-way: the return-process worked out perfectly. Well done, Thomann!
