Track Listing

1. Dablvabie: Flute Concerto
2. Jarrell: ...un temps de silence (Concerto pour flute)
3. Pintscher: Transir for Flute & Chamber Orchestra

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54294 in Music
• Released on: 2008-04-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

A real review for an amazing disc
It seems that no one will go near this album simply because the composers are still alive so I think we at last need a real review of this fantastic accomplishment. All three concertos are in single movements and were commissioned for Pahud to be premiered with various orchestras. Starting with the Dalbavie we are given a long rhapsodic statement that blurs transition and sectional writing for a much more fluid work. This is not a "big" work and the actual orchestra employed is closer to a chamber orchestra with fewer wind parts than a typical modern full orchestra. Throughout the soloist is given several gestures that reverberate through the orchestra to form a constant dialogue. Often the orchestra is called upon to complete a motive presented by the flute most often the strings accomplish this though towards the middle and end of the work the brass contribute more heavily. The soloist's function is this work is not of technical bravado but more towards forming a complete dialogue with the accompanying orchestra, again to form a sort of rhapsodic fluidity between "sections". As a student of Donatoni and Boulez I was actually expecting Dalbavie's work to be a bit more aggressive and disjunct but the work is quite accessible and a pleasure to listen to.

The Jarrell concerto uses a completely different harmonic/melodic language than the Dalbavie and also employs the soloist and orchestra in different often opposing functions. The most celebrated Swiss composer of his time, Jarrell studied at IRCAM and many of the effects he calls upon from soloist and orchestra reflect this training. Also in more practical terms the orchestra is larger and much more aggressive. Jarrell's focus with the work is to highlight the different functions and characters of silence by evaporating several sections into nothing and beginning abruptly. Thus, the work is unified by the use of subito silence following long melodic gestures contrasted with harsh and pointed motives. The language and techniques used in this concerto are quite advanced and the soloist is required to flutter-tongue, slap/stop-tongue, and perform multiphonics in addition to very rapid multiple tonuging. I'll agree with the first strange reviewer below that this is definitely not easy listening when compared with Mozart but I have to say anything that Pahud performs becomes easy listening for me. The exceptional control Pahud has over all registers of his instrument make this very abstract music flow naturally. The end of this piece is just incredible with the strings sustaining a very airy cluster chord while the soloist fades away performing several percussive and air effects, bone-chilling!

Illustrating a cd program based on progression from relative accessibility to complex language to total abstraction, the final work by Matthias Pintscher is again a completely different language than either of the first two works. At least to my ears, the use of the flute hear is less as a flute and more as an air-effect machine requiring several nuanced articulations to display Pintscher's affinity for the relationship between the human air stream and the actual vibrating mechanism it becomes when striking the flute. The orchestra is similarly employed as an atmosphere of effects, a very large backdrop against which the flute becomes the connecting thread. Several solo sections start from very simple air effects to complex multi-effect gestures that become more unstable and virtuosic and are then passed to the orchestra that add a severe amount of "bite." The enjoyment (at least for me) in this work was the general feeling of instability where the orchestra occasionally would be a stable atmospheric backdrop (think Ligeti Atmospheres) only to explode with abandon the next instant with the soloist trying to ride the wave. The progression from abstract pontillist sounds to longer sustained periods of virtuosity mainly toward the middle-end of the work demands a great deal from the soloist. Again needless to say Pahud makes this sound effortless and inhabits the character of the work with great command.

If you were previously listening to Pahud's recordings as a pleasing backdrop to coffee and cake this is not the recording for you. If you are interested in exploring a different side of this amazing artist as well as hearing three completely different works make powerful statements in a post-tonal language then you can't go wrong with this recording. Superb playing throughout from soloist and orchestra. Contemporary music needs artists of such accomplishment and abilities to be involved in the process of commissioning and promoting new music. I would love to hear a solo cd of some 20th and 21st century music from Pahud displaying his command of the modern techniques in a more intimate setting. Wonderful recording of very advanced and enjoyable music!

Not my style
The sound on my computer was not working and I did not listen to the CD before purchase. It was billed as easy listening but for me the type of music grated. The flutest was excellent but his choice of music was not my style.