During the long, uneasy days of the Covid Pandemic, I listened to radio dramas of the 1940's and 50's. These tales of extortion, infidelity and murder were filled with ominous organ hits, creaking doors, stilted dialog and droll one-liners; a mix of the deadly serious with the absurd. Radio Noir recalls the strange pandemic mood of dusk encroaching and isolation. ___Joseph M. Levin

A transformation During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world shut down and many lives were lost or changed forever, I experienced a serious transformation. A commitment to sobriety unleashed new creative forces. The world's new normal of quiet and introspection led me to return to a more formal branch of my musical upbringing: fully-inked acoustic music. Untethered from the backbeats and lead sheets of my career in jazz and pop music, I once again immersed myself in scores and music literature. An exciting new sense of freedom filled me with inspiration. I discovered a wellspring of patience and subsequent understanding and became obsessed with form. Hyper-focussed and pencil in hand, I wrote tirelessly from dawn until dusk. When I spoke about this newfound passion with one of the biggest supporters of my lifetime, my Dad, he told me it sounded like I had "seen the light" - a remarkable turn of events during an otherwise difficult time for us all. About the music... String Quartet No. 1 "The Orphans" (2023) The idea of writing a string quartet began to haunt me as this hallowed format can be intimidating. After what initially seemed like fruitless labor, I sidelined this ambition to work on some other music. Then one day while walking in a forest preserve in Chicago, a tune popped into my head which later developed into a promising base movement for a string quartet. Despite a failed attempt at a second movement, my confidence grew, and again inspired by nature, movements I, II and III were written with the base movement now as IV. Just when I thought the whole piece was done, the inspiration for another, shorter, livelier, and more cohesive movement came to me, and outdoors no less! Following my intuition I completely abandoned the germ of it all, the mother of this string quartet, for four of her offspring. It was an unpredictable process. Three Poe Excerpts (2022) While writing my first opera, The Bells of Fortunato, adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, I became transfixed by Poe's writing. I discovered more stories of his with moments full of life and beauty that seemed to be wonderful opportunities for songs. I ended up taking a break from Fortunato to work on the songs that became Three Poe Excerpts. "Even as it Was" came first followed by "A Feeling for Which I Have No Name." These both came fairly easily and with much joy, but I wasn't satisfied with just the two. Although initially skeptical of the music that became "To the Right and Left," something told me to stay the course, and I am happy with the result. I thought the three songs could use some sort of set up, and the image of a hand opening an oversized book like in the beginning of old fairytale movies came to mind. This inspired the foreword and afterword. The Thousand Injuries (2023) A section of one of my prior works, a fantasie called Outside Motion in Stillness, gave me the idea to try my hand at an opera. I read through many plays, poems, and stories until landing on the right one. I believe there have been at least a couple of operas based on The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, but that didn't stop me from writing my own adaptation, The Bells of Fortunato. The Carnival scene was the perfect fit for the music I had brewing. Poe's writing is wonderfully succinct and illustrative, and I found myself so intrigued that the rest of the music came without much hesitation. After a musical introduction which includes a chorus singing "nemo me impune lacesset" ("no one attacks me with impunity"), we meet our protagonist Montresor, played by a soprano, who sings the only aria from the opera. "The Thousand Injuries" informs us of her contempt for the entitled Fortunato. The musicians and the studio... I can't speak highly enough of the musicians on this album. The dedication to great performance from each individual is heard in every moment. I am truly honored to have made this with you all. I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to Doyle for assembling this dream of a string quartet to help bring "The Orphans" to life with such finesse and conviction. Thanks to Steve of SHIRK studios for the hard work, perpetual coolness, and professional atmosphere that is consistently provided. Special thanks to Matt Reed, Stu Mindeman, Margaret Casey, and Tom Palmer. All my love to Al and Ray. In memory of Tom Doherty. Rest easy Thos.

A winner of both the Charles Ives Scholarship and Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Russell Platt is currently a Professor at Vanderbilt University. In earlier years, Platt was an editor at The New Yorker, where he won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Music Criticism in 2010. This recording presents premiere performances of Platt's music, including songs composed for Metropolitan Opera tenor, Paul Appleby.

This is the second volume of Michael Kallstrom's flute chamber work. They offer varied timbres, interesting orchestrations, thoughtful melodies, bold harmonies, and interesting new cross-rhythms. Heidi Pintner has made performances of Kallstrom's music a specialty for her.

An adventurous program of European masterworks for flute and guitar from scintillating young artists Viviana Guzman and Jeremy Jouve, captured brilliantly by Grammy®-winning recording engineer Keith O. Johnson. A winner for all audiophiles and music lovers! This album is a musical journey full of emotion, from the soothing and mellow music of Fauré and Satie, and the driving excitement of “Bolero” and “Carmen,” to thrilling modern music by Dyens, Duplessy, and Ourkouzounov.

Described by the New York Times as “an imaginative artist,” Chilean-born flutist, Viviana Guzmán performs over 80 concerts a year throughout the world. She has been featured on programs for PBS, NBC, and NPR, seen on the cover of Latina Style Magazine, and in COSMOPOLITAN en Español and has played in 118 countries including South Africa, Ireland, Spain, Brazil, Bali, India, Peru, and Greece featuring flutes from her collection of over 100 gathered from concert tours.

This album comprises nine solo and chamber compositions written over a span of more than fifty years. Although none of these pieces uses any Asian instruments, most of them contain some kind of Asian cultural references. All of them were composed for the performers who have recorded them. __ David Loeb

INVOCACIONES: Mexican Music for Flute and Piano • Evangelina Reyes (fl); Camelia Goila (pn) • URTEXT DIGITAL JBCC-188 (67:27)


ZYMAN Sonata for Flute and Piano. LAVISTA Dance of Degas’s Ballerinas. CORAL Not So Short Sonata for Flute and Piano. ARMENGOL Divertimento. ARANDA Mnemósine. Cadenza. LUNA Six Fantasies for Flute and Piano. E. TOUSSAINT Bop Study No.1 for Flute Solo


This is another one of those collections of miscellany that is so easily overlooked or dismissed—I would probably pass over it myself if I were just a reader of this magazine. But this recording offers fine performances of an extremely appealing recital program, with a repertoire that ranges from the truly superb to the merely pleasant. I will discuss the program in my own judgment of descending order of interest.


The most fully satisfying work is the 17-minute sonata by the Mexican-American composer Samuel Zyman, now in his late-50s, and a member of the Juilliard faculty for quite a few years. From my personal vantage point, Zyman’s music seems to have drawn little serious attention, but of nearly a dozen of his works that I’ve encountered over the years I haven’t heard one that failed to exhibit an irresistible sense of compelling creative urgency, vividly and expertly articulated within a general language of traditional modern neoclassicism. But unlike the neoclassical norm, often characterized by a cool detachment and lack of emotional commitment, Zyman’s music is always serious and expressive in tone, with a driving contrapuntal energy. I cannot imagine a flutist who wouldn’t relish a work like this, which grabs the listener intensely from the first moment and never lets go. The piece it most resembles is the perennially popular Sonata for Flute and Piano by the late Robert Muczynski, but Zyman’s 1993 sonata is somewhat more driven and edgy.


Also of considerable interest and appeal is the Dance of Degas’s Ballerinas , composed in 1992 by Mario Lavista. Born in 1943, Lavista seems to have the most cosmopolitan academic pedigree of the composers represented, having studied with a range of mentors from Nadia Boulanger and György Ligeti to Karlheinz Stockhausen. But the short piece that we hear here is a consistently absorbing abstract work in a modern traditionalist style. Some listeners may find their imaginations stimulated by the title, but I heard no convincing musical connection to the suggested images, yet had no problem connecting with the piece as pure music.


Leonardo Coral, born in 1962, is a prolific composer whose music has been performed widely throughout Mexico. His four-movement piece, whose title may be translated as Not So Short Sonata for Flute and Piano , dates from 2003. It is a pleasant piece with an occasional reminiscence of Poulenc—pretty, straightforward, but with no plumbing of expressive depths. Mario Ruiz Armengol (1914-2002) was a versatile figure in Mexican music, celebrated in the classical, light classical, and popular fields. His Divertimento in G (1979) for alto flute and piano is a gracious, warmly lyrical piece. Alexis Aranda, not yet 40 and the youngest composer represented here, has been hailed as a major talent within the Mexican music establishment. A student of Mario Lavista, noted above, he is represented here by two very short pieces. The first, Mnemósine , refers to the goddess of memory. Dating from 2002, it begins with striking dissonance, but quickly warms up to an appealingly tonal lyricism. The earlier Cadenza for unaccompanied flute is a rather late addition to a genre overflowing with mediocre pieces.


Armando Luna (b. 1964) received his graduate training under Leonardo Balada at Carnegie Mellon University, while his career has flourished actively in his native Mexico. The program notes accompanying his Six Fantasies of 1992 make all sorts of intriguingly colorful references, but the actual music does not bear them out and is rather ordinary if pleasant enough. Like many of the composers represented on this recital, Eugenio Toussaint (1954-2011) was active in Mexico’s popular, jazz, and classical worlds. His Bop Study No. 1 (1994) was originally written for recorder, but Evangelina Reyes transcribed it for flute. As it stands, the short piece exploits a wide range of flute effects, both familiar and unconventional, many of them suggestive of “bop”-style jazz. All the pieces are performed expertly by both Reyes and her accompanist Camelia Goila.


FANFARE: Walter Simmons

“Elegance and poetry... silvery tone, beautifully controlled… phrases flowing and immaculate.” (Okinawa News) Italian virtuoso flutist Raffaele Trevisani continues to exemplify such praise in this, his ninth Delos recording. His graceful elegance and interpretive warmth are evident in this all-Mozart program containing some of his loveliest music despite his rather low regard for the flute. A rare bonus is the faithful transcription for flute of the masterly Quartet for Oboe, K370. Mr. Trevisani’s three collaborators are members of the renowned Suk Chamber Orchestra.

TELEMANN Flute Concertos: in D, TWV 42:D6; in g, TWV 42:g2; in A, TWV 42:A3; in e, TWV 42:e3; in b, TWV 42:h1; in a, TWV 42:a2 • Claire Guimond (Baroque fl); Luc Beauséjour (hpd) (period instruments) • EARLY-MUSIC.COM 7755 (72: 19)


The six works recorded here were published in Hamburg around 1715–20 with the title Six Concerts and Six Suites for Harpsichord and Flute, or for Harpsichord, Flute and Cello, or for Violin, Flute and Cello or Basso Continuo, or for Harpsichord, Violin, Flute, and Cello. This was obviously an attempt to market these works to as wide an audience as possible. Guimond and Beauséjour contend that Telemann’s original intention was to compose these works for harpsichord and flute, which is the way they are performed here. The flute and harpsichord engage as two equal voices. The “concertos” or “concerts” of the title do not imply a work for solo instrument and orchestra. Rather, they are more closely related to the trio sonata, written in the sonata da chiesa style of four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast.


These six works display Telemann’s ability to write genial, attractive music, though it must be admitted they are not among the most compelling compositions to flow from Telemann’s ready pen. Guimond plays with grace and has good control of her instrument. Beauséjour provides excellent support.


These concertos are not available elsewhere as a group; I only found one concerto otherwise available. This is certainly not an essential purchase, but it makes for pleasant listening.


FANFARE: Ron Salemi

Bach, in his time, could never have envisioned his music being recorded. When we first embarked on our journey with the Oxford Bach Soloists, our focus was not on recording. We were immersed in the live experience, discovering Bach's vocal works chronologically, in real-time. It was about living the music as all those who performed and heard it did, tracing his steps through each note and phrase. Featuring two of our core Soloists, Nick Pritchard and Yu-Wei Hu, this album presents three of Bach's Cantatas. These include possibly his earliest vocal work, Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4), his only extant tenor cantata, Ich armer Mensch (BWV 55), and the much-beloved cantata, Ich habe genug, showcased here in it's arrangement for high voice and flute (BWV 82.2). This recording is a celebration of our journey with Bach, and an invitation to experience his timeless music through our own journey of dedication and discovery.

Their second album of 2025, and their 11th album with Signum Records, baroque giants La Serenissima return with an album of works by composers including Telemann, Sieber, Durante, and Brescianello. The album explores how their styles changed and developed as they 'crossed borders' between Italy, Germany, France and other European countries. Vivaldi', La Serenissima is 'one of Britain's best-loved chamber orchestras' (The Telegraph) known for their outstanding performances, championing a host of neglected Italian baroque composers. Uniquely, the group's entire repertoire is edited from source material by founder and violinist, Adrian Chandler OSI.

Flutist Robert Aitken and harpsichordist Greta Kraus were active as a world-renowned duo. They made many fine recordings of mostly baroque and the early classical era. Each artist had an impressive solo career in addition to their duo work, and the couple were not only known for their impressive performances, but also for their dedication to pedagogue and education. Presented on this new release from DOREMI are 3 J.S. Bach Sonatas recorded in 1979, and a Partita recorded in 1969 captured here in superb audiophile quality. Also included is a scintillating performance of CPE Bach's Flute Concerto in D, recorded in concert in Vancouver in 1981 by Robert Aitken and conductor John Eliot Gardiner.

This album came to me in a fit of stillness. I had been moving so much and for so long that I forgot that my favorite thing to do is to just sit. Sitting in stillness involves watching, waiting, listening, and observing. It involves becoming aware of the edges of things - in my case, where my body ends and the chair begins, where a bird call starts and a melody has always existed, where a cloud has always been a storm and the storm is me. When I wrote these songs, I was sitting still and looking at the sea. Yes, the actual sea, but also the sea of my childhood and the sea of my recurring dreams. In the process of writing, I've learned that if I look long enough, rooms that I didn't previously have access to emerge, floating in front of me like hard working tugboats, pulling behind them all the postcards that I've written to myself. I've learned that if I listen long enough, a vine will always grow out my head and become a phone cord, connecting me to all the times I've wanted to tell you I love you and have held it back. - Alex Sopp

2023 marks 25 years since the death of British composer Paul Reade. He is remembered for his delightful Victorian Kitchen Garden music (Ivor Novello Award) and television themes such as Antiques Road-show. However, he also wrote a huge range of equally wonderful but less well-known pieces, full of melodic invention, wit and fabulous energy. They are previously unpublished and unrecorded works that deserve to be heard.

These are premiere recordings (except for the Chants du Roussillon) and show Paul’s music at its best: tender, poignant, humorous and uplifting, full of wonderful melodic and dramatic invention. Philippa Davies has been hailed as a ‘first-rate virtuoso’, with ’winning charm’, ’exceptional eloquence’ and an ‘almost electrical response to technique’. Since her celebrated performance of Mozart’s Concerto in D major at the BBC Proms in 1988, she has gained an international reputation as one of the finest flautists currently performing.

FANTAISIE • Mathieu Dufour (fl); Kuang-Hao Huang (pn) • ÇEDILLE 90000-121 (57:00)


FAURÉ Fantaisie. GAUBERT Fantaisie. HÜE Fantaisie. DOPPLER Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy. TAFFANEL Fantasy on Themes from Weber’s “Der Freischütz.” BORNE Fantaisie Brilliante on Themes from Bizet’s Carmen


Here are six pieces for flute and piano, all but one by French composers, and all titled “Fantaisie.” Yet except for Fauré, I’d have thought that not one of these composers would come up in conversation other than by flutists and flute fanciers. So I suppose I was a bit surprised to find a number of similarly programmed recitals including these composers and pieces reviewed in the Fanfare Archive.


A release covered in Fanfare 23:1 by John Lambert included the Fauré and Gaubert fantasies as well as a piece by Taffanel, though not his Fantaisie. Another CD, reviewed by Paul Ingram in 28:2, did include Taffanel’s Fantaisie as well as Borne’s. Still another disc reviewed by Lambert in 24:3 included both Borne’s and Hüe’s. And the one not-French composer in the mix here, Albert Franz Doppler, had his Fantaisie turn up on a release reviewed by Lambert in 21:5, which also contained the Borne. So it seems that none of these composers and their fantasies are as obscure as I imagined.


Anyone who knows the flute world is sure to recognize the name Mathieu Dufour. He was and is once again principal flute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post to which he was appointed at the age of 25 by Daniel Barenboim. The “was” happened during the 2010 season, when Dufour left his post in Chicago to join the Los Angeles Philharmonic on a trial basis. The marriage went sour, and he left abruptly, midseason, to return to Chicago where he’d been allowed to retain his post as a kind of dual citizen. The L.A. divorce was nasty, with some regrettable remarks made by Dufour about the Los Angeles orchestra quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times , remarks for which the flutist later apologized, insisting he’d been misquoted.


Kuang-Hao Huang, Dufour’s piano partner on the disc, is a well-known artist in the Chicago area. He pursues an active performing and teaching career, has concertized throughout the U.S. as well as in England, France, China, and South Korea, and collaborates regularly with chamber-music ensembles.


The works on the CD fall into two groups, plus one that falls into neither. The Fauré, Gaubert, and Hüe fantasies are virtuosic contest pieces written for the annual competitive concours examinations held by the Paris Conservatory. The Borne and Taffanel are examples of the popular 19th-century genre of opera paraphrases, which were written in great numbers—many by Liszt—to tunes from well-known operas of the day. The square peg in the round hole is Franz Doppler, both for being of Hungarian birth and for his Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy, which falls into neither of the above categories. The piece is presumed to be based on Hungarian folk melodies, which may have been manufactured by Doppler rather than borrowed from authentic sources. Doppler’s name rang a bell. It was something I’d read before. He was the composer who assisted Liszt in orchestrating some of his works when Liszt was first learning to orchestrate.


The two opera paraphrases are quite dazzling and not insignificant concert works in their own right. Taffanel mines Der Freischütz for gold and finds far more nuggets of the precious metal in Weber’s opera than I ever have. Borne’s Carmen Fantasy is, if anything, even more brilliant, as the “brilliante” in its title promises. Either Borne was the more technically adept flute master and imaginative composer, or Bizet’s music lends itself better to this sort of treatment than does Weber’s. Perhaps both propositions are true.


Exemplary playing in service to unfamiliar and entertaining music combines with excellent recording to make this a most recommendable release.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins