Like Korngold, Toch, Schoenberg, Zeisl and Zemlinsky, Richard Stöhr (1874–1967) was another Austrian composer driven into American exile by the Nazis. His generous output of music, being rediscovered at last in these Toccata Classics recordings, includes seven symphonies, much chamber music, songs, and choral and piano pieces. These chamber works, from his first years in the United States, show him in surprisingly relaxed mood, the Viennese lyricism of his native city maintained in his US refuge. The Flute Suite in particular – though written only four years after his flight from Vienna – can boast a number of easy-going ‘ear-worms’ that linger in the memory long after the music has stopped.
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.
Bach: Flauto traverso obbligato / Graf, Rilling, Stuttgart Bach Collegium
Haenssler Classic
CD
$24.99Feb 08, 2019
The flute solos from the Bach cantatas require great performers. Some 300 years after they were premiered, the Bach Collegium Stuttgart and Hänssler Classic are pleased to celebrate Peter-Lukas Graf, one of their most eminent soloists! Our selection presents them in what we hope is a pleasing, varied manner and concentrates on bringing out a wide color palette: in addition to the well-known trio sonata form (i.e. two instruments and continuo), the listener will also find pieces associating the flute with another instrument (or more) - such as a second flute, one or two oboi d’amore, a violin sometimes playing in unison - or works in which the flute is accompanied by the full string section, and four choruses from four different cantatas, each with a concertante flute part.
Traveling Sonata: European Music For Flute & Guitar
Reference Recordings
CD
$18.99Jan 01, 2012
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.
Elinor Armer: To the Western Sea - Remembering Ursula K. Le Guin
Centaur Records
CD
$17.99Oct 07, 2022
This is an album of music set to poems of Ursula K. Le Guin, the great fantasy writer of books and poems. The composer, Elinor, had a nearly 40-year friendship with the great writer. Widely performed throughout the U.S. and abroad, Elinor Armer’s music reflects her persona in its high-hearted originality. It includes solo, chamber, orchestral, vocal and choral works, and is marked by harmonic beauty, strong narrative line, rhythmic energy, sensitivity to language, emotional expressiveness, and humor.
Belgian flutist Karin de Fleyt is one of the foremost specialists in the flute world. This album contains three contrasting works- one for flute and wind orchestra, one for mixed flutes, clarinets, and piano, and one for solo bass flute. Karin de Fleyt is a fantastic player of flute, alto flute, piccolo, bass flute, bansuri flute, and shakuhachi. She frequently performs experimental music with extended techniques, and is a member of the artistic board in the HERMES Ensemble.
For the latter part of her long life, Ester Magi (1922-2021) was known as 'the First Lady of Estonian music', her modest, charming disposition endearing her to all who met her. But her music reveals the true strength of her personality, and this first complete recording of her songs for female voice - over half a century of compositional activity - covers a striking emotional range, from the ambivalent feelings of falling in love to dramatic ritual invocations of startling force and power. Many of the earlier songs are openly romantic, but Magi soon began to tap into the hypnotic energy of Estonian runic folksong, with it's echoes of village life and it's incantations intended to placate a hostile environment.
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
During the 18th century in Naples there were a huge number of excellent musicians. As a result, Neapolitan music reveals an exhaustive and surprising gold mine of new discoveries and small masterpieces. None of these sonatas have ever been recorded before. Flautist Renata Cataldi presents these works on an authentic transverse flute. She is joined by the ensemble Partenope Stravagante, cellist Leonardo Massa, and harpsichordist Debora Capitanio. Renata Cataldi studied at the "Licinio Refice" in Frosinone and "San Pietro a Majella" in Naples, and received her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Bologna. She regularly concertizes as a soloist, in various chamber ensembles, and in orchestra, devoting herself to the modern, Renaissance, and Baroque transverse flute. With the transverse flute, she dedicates herself to the recovery and enhancement of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan musical heritage. She is also the author of essays and articles published for the State Archives of Rome and the Italian Society of Musicology.
Lourié: Chamber & Instrumental Music, Vol. 1 - Works with Wind Instruments
Toccata
CD
$20.99Jan 06, 2023
The turbulent life of Arthur Lourié (1891–1966) – student of Glazunov, friend of Blok, lover of Akhmatova, commissar of the Soviet regime, exile in Germany, France and the USA, ghost-writer for Koussevitzky – is reflected in the wide range of references in his music, from echoes of the ceremonies of ancient Greece to Neo-Baroque and Neo-Classical procedures perhaps inspired by his collaboration with Stravinsky in Paris. Some of the works in this first of two albums surveying his chamber and instrumental music have an almost ritual formality; in others a mischievous grin is not far from the surface.
REVIEWS:
The personnel is spearheaded by flautist Birgit Ramsl and they all play with commendable accomplishment and verve that serve Lourié well. There are also four premiere recordings. However you sum him up, stylistically, his remains a cultured, cultivated and agreeably cosmopolitan voice, drawing on Russian and French traditions to irradiate the ritual formality of his music.
Alinde Quintet - a new star in the chamber music heavens At the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich in 2024, the Alinde Quintet emerged as a dazzling new star on the chamber music scene. By that time, they had already earned several notable prizes in London, Copenhagen, and beyond. The players are closely associated with leading Czech and international orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. On their debut album, the quintet presents the intimate "inscapes" of four composers. In the works of Haas and Shostakovich, the shadow of war and Nazi ideology casts a profound, even fatal shadow on their inscapes, while Shostakovich and Jan Novak also ran into conflict with Communist dictatorships. Yet all of the compositions reflect distinct personal inscapes, offering glimpses into the lives of their creators. Haas's imaginative quintet bears the unmistakable imprint of his teacher Leos Janacek, who had died just months before the work's completion. Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet (arranged by Mark A. Popkin) serves as both autobiography and elegy - a dark, haunting inscape tinged with drama. In Peteris Vasks's composition, an ancient Latvian funeral song intertwines with virtuosic passages and aleatoric sections, evoking the heartrending loss of a kindred spirit. Like a contrasting colour on a canvas, the Concertino by Jan Novak brings the album infectious joy, playfulness, and jazzy rhythms, lending radiant colouring to the composer's inscape, which could not be obscured even by the dark clouds of Czechoslovakia's totalitarian regime of the 1950s. Throughout the album, the Alinde Quintet draws on the full spectrum of colours their instruments can offer, vividly painting each composer's inscape.
Society of Composers, Inc. presents 10 works from boundary-defying composers on TRANSITION AND APOTHEOSIS, the 35th installment of their celebrated Composers’ Series.
"Carnyx" by Chris Arrell employs the carnyx, the ceremonial and battle trumpet used by Iron Age Celts, to conjure the terror of an army encroaching through the morning mist.
Jiyoun Chung’s "Scissors" is a fantasia-toccata for solo piano inspired by the traditional Korean Scissors dance.
"24/7" by Yunfei Li honors the healthcare professionals who served on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Transition and Apotheosis" from Mike McFerron is a multichannel fixed media piece that maps Danish composer Per Nørgård’s “infinity sequence” to sound elements.
Paul Lombardi’s "Unwoven" incorporates the fractal-like technique used in his past pieces to startling new effects.
Robert McClure’s "struggling in excess" decries the vast amounts of waste humans produce on a daily basis.
"glass, evaporate[d]" from to?-dr?-'ki is a hauntingly beautiful reimagining of 2019’s "lips evaporate".
William Price’s "Sans Titre VII (B)" is a modified variation-rondo that explores the wide range, technical agility, and unique extended techniques offered by the saxophone.
"Der Saus und Braus" by Joseph Klein is the sixteenth in a series of short works for solo instruments based on characters in Elias Canetti’s "Der Ohrenzeuge: Fünfzig Charaktere" (Earwitness: Fifty Characters).
Finally, Ania Vu’s "Tik-Tak" sets the composer’s Polish poem to remind us of the relentless flow of time.
SCI renews its decades-long mission to promote and disseminate contemporary music in this Navona Records release.
Burtner, Chafe, Goncalves, Luna-Mega & Stine: Soundscapes of Restoration
Ravello Records
CD
$16.99May 12, 2023
On the coasts of the Atlantic, sparrows whistle atop the trees, Eastern winds whisper through spartina grasses, and fiddler crabs skitter within their sandy burrows — a great symphony of shorelines soon to be left incomplete. As rising sea levels continue to threaten coastal reefs, shores, and the hundreds of lifeforms inhabiting them, the Coastal Conservatory urges us to consider our efforts of restoration and offers us an avenue for restoring coastal futures, a meditation on the music of the most integral barriers to the ever-pressing Atlantic. SOUNDSCAPES OF RESTORATION is both an exploration and a reflection, a listening experience that leaves one changed with the desire to make change further. It is a journey that cannot, and should not, be forgotten.
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.
Lasse Thoresen is a bold exponent of contemporary Scandinavian music, inspired by a culture rich in tradition where new instrumental techniques express a unique range of feelings. His chamber music for flute and piano is here performed by Maiken and Trond Schau with a virtuosity that succeeds in evoking an immediate response from the listener in its revitalization of a time-honoured musical language.
'María de Buenos Aires brought me inner peace, a partial serenity that has changed my way of approaching music. I reached the zenith of my musical life at the time. (Astor Piazzolla) Piazzolla himself equated María to the tango and it's historical ups and downs; and this is probably also the primary aid to understanding the reception of the contents of the piece. Next to that, there is also a musical diction that is entirely unique in the second half of the 20th century, indeed in the New Music scene as a whole. 'I learnt something: to be patient, to be self-critical, to co-ordinate reflection with passion. Now I am told: 'That is a different Piazzolla', but that is not the case. I am the same man, but I have reached a synthesis'. (Astor Piazzolla)
Principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra, Adam Walker presents a recital of alternately lyric and dynamic music for flute and piano. A lovelorn song from Die schone Mullerin forms the basis of a set of variations by Schubert, and reflective songs without words by Poulenc and Barber offer mellifluous contrast with the dancing energy of Bartok, Messiaen and Poulenc.
Horațiu Rădulescu: Plasmatic Music / Dunscombe, Lane, Rădulescu
Mode Records
CD
$20.99Jul 01, 2022
Sam Dunscombe writes: “This release marks Volume 4 in Mode’s Rădulescu Edition. The three works on this release explore different aspects of Rădulescu’s theory of Sound Plasma as it evolved over the course of the 1970s, from Rădulescu’s early to middle periods. Capricorn’s Nostalgic Crickets (1972) presents a simple pulse of spectrally dense sound events, described in the composer’s own words as a “PULSE-TIDE of MUSIC and SILENCE.” The seven clarinetists should transcend their instrumental selves, coming together to evoke the sounds of the natural world — the timbres of electronic music, the magical and phonetic aspects of language, even other instruments. This is to be done in the most fluid way possible, never dwelling on any one interaction but rather creating a sense of a whole universe of sounds constantly evolving and decaying. Small Infinities’ Togetherness (1972) is the shimmering articulation of a single sound spectrum (that of a low ‘D’) that shifts between harmonicity and inharmonicity, spectral narrowness and spectral width. The version presented on this album features two archival recordings of Rădulescu playing organ (the original tape from Fountains of My Sky) and synthesiser (initially intended as a backing track for a duo version with Fernando Grillo). These are augmented with two sound groups recorded in the period between 2018–21, one of electronics (analogue and digital synthesis together with tape manipulation) and one of acoustic instruments (a set of Rădulescu’s original Romanian folk wooden flutes, and a specially tuned sound icon). In Opus 42: Inner Time / Outer Time (1980-83), paired compositions presented together here for the first time, a spectrum of odd number harmonics is deconstructed and rebuilt by overlaid flutes and clarinets, the instruments’ natural variations of pitch causing the total sonic mass to seethe and boil.”
“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.
Principal Harpist of the Philadelphia Orchestra Elizabeth Hainen's first release for AVIE spanned three centuries of Harp Concertos (AV 2221). Her new Kickstarter-funded release, Les Amis, features a rare pairing of works by Claude Debussy and André Caplet, exploring the composers' friendship through their respective works Danse sacrée and Danse profane, and the evocative Masque of the Red Death, with Michael Stern and the IRIS Orchestra. Rounding out the recording, Elizabeth solos with a transcription of Debussy's Petite Suite, originally for solo piano, and Caplet's Divertissements, and is joined by her own amis, fellow Philadelphia Orchestra principal flautist Jeffrey Khaner and violist Roberto Diaz, President of the Curtis Institute, in Debussy's Trio Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp. critical acclaim for Elizabeth Hainen's Harp Concertos (AV 2221) "The entire production has class and great aural resonance, a real delight to add to an otherwise neglected body of music." ¬- Audiophile Audition "Hainen plays with impressive virtuosity." - Fanfare "The tonal range of Hainen's playing, coupled with her technical finesse and sense of style, bring allure to the entire disc." - The Daily Telegraph
Doppler: The Complete Flute Music, Vol. 1 / Arimany, Martinez, Orquesta Sinfonica Ciudad de Elche
Capriccio
CD
$16.99Jan 06, 2017
The Doppler brothers played a dominant role in the K & K Monarchy’s musical life as composers, conductors, musicians, and as orchestral soloists. They were on good terms with acknowledged artists of the era, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, of Jozsef Bajza. Capriccio starts with this first album in the release of ten total of the complete flute music composed by Franz and Carl Doppler, including many world premiere recordings and interesting autobiographical notes. Flutist Claudi Arimany has done all of the research for this project over the past two decades, and has invited some of the best musicians in the world to participate in this project, including Janos Balint and Shigenori Kudo, who are the flutists chosen for this album.
Telemann: 6 Concertos For Flute And Harpsichord Tv 42 / Guimond, Beausejour
Early-music.com
CD
$18.99Feb 24, 2009
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.
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.
