The Andante is especially good, this flute sonata anticipating his even better wartime violin sonata.
If Demuth looked to France, Stanley Bate looked to Hindemith and his technically accomplished and melodically distinctive sonata is a high point of the disc. Nonetheless, the clarity is vivid and attractive. Perhaps one day we’ll hear Norman Demuth’s concertos for violin and for viola but in the meantime here are his Three Pastorals after Ronsard of 1953.There’s a rather Gallic cast to this set, as one might perhaps expect of a distinguished writer on French music of the late nineteenth and twentieth-centuries. The highlight is the warm, liquid Sarabande though Peter Horton’s vigilant and insightful notes detect a ‘sombre’ element to its beauty. It’s very skilfully done and is in no sense pretentious. Armstrong Gibbs’ Suite in A can be accompanied either by piano, as here, or string orchestra. Its three compact movements illustrate lightly spiced baroque elements, lyric distinction in the central panel, and a lively, effortless finale. Robin Milford’s sensitive art is reflected in his Sonata in C, composed in 1949. This is a delightful sequence of terpsichorean variations, one teetering wickedly on the cusp of a nautical hornpipe, that shows an avuncular compositional sense and – directly or indirectly – the qualities of the soloist Fleury, whom Henschel greatly admired. It was dedicated to the French player Louis Fleury as was George Henschel’s altogether bigger-boned Theme and Variations, written in the same year. Rootham’s 1921 Suite evokes folkloric elements, a slightly wan modality, as well as promoting Baroque nomenclature – Passacaglia, Sarabande and Jig. Dedicated to Eli Hudson, a busy soloist of the time, it was premiered – and edited – by Walthew’s colleague Albert Fransella, principal flute of Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall Orchestra.
Indeed, it’s Richard Walthew’s work that bears that name, and is the oldest piece: rich, enveloping piano chords, a calm, gentle five-minute eclogue with a long cadenza for the flute. ‘Idyll’ pretty much covers this repertoire of British music for flute and piano spanning the years 1907 to 1981. 2017, Menuhin Hall, The Menuhin School, Cobham, UK Three Pastorals after Ronsard, for Flute Solo (1953) Ĭantiga Morisca, for Solo Flute (1981) Support us financially by purchasing this from
0 kommentar(er)
