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Why Gypsy Wheel? There’s
no answer in the booklet but it refers
to the cover art, a painting of that
name by Ed Paschke in the collection
of flautist Thomas Robertello. This
is a most eclectic collection, ranging
from the brilliant French operatic paraphrases
of Borne and Taffanel via the stern
morality of the Seven Deadly Sins (Zupko,
not Weill) to the culinary temptations
of van Brink’s Dai Dosai, a sonata that
takes as its theme Indian cooking. Surely
a first.
The abrasive start
of Dzubay’s 2002 Footprints is misleading.
The work abjures rigid or doctrinaire
precepts and instead settles down to
some rhythmic oscillation. That Dai
Dosai (each movement headed by the name
of a different dish – the composer is
clearly a culinary connoisseur though
he doesn’t obviously say so himself)
is a bubbly three-movement affair. Its
ostensible inspiration doesn’t inform
the musical style – no ragas here. It’s
a bit conventional to start with Garam
Masala I suppose but the Andante feel
of Asafoetida is attractive whilst we
reserve the spiciest mix for the fused
finale, Tarka (the dish not the otter)
with its slower central section; one
long satisfying chew before some exultant
overblowing ends the meal.
Zupko mines scurry
and some tense brittle writing to evoke
the Sins – Lust is scherzo-like, Anger
is full of flutter-tongued moments,
vocal and fractious, and Envy has some
coiled and nasty piano writing over
which the flute floats with serene hypocrisy.
Idiomatic writing and one of the pieces
dedicated to the daredevil flautist
Robertello. He and Choi catch the urgency
of the evocative Griffes and dish out
the flummery of the Borne and Taffanel
with gleeful virtuosity – the former
has a Habanera and plenty of spicy drama
and the soloist’s snatched breaths are
indicative of the demands involved.
The notes are, as ever
with this company, comprehensive (though
I always get confused as to which way
the booklet text runs).
Jonathan Woolf