Copyrighted by
Moonlight Productions under exclusive licence to EMI these
recordings now appear on Cala over a decade after their original
recording. I never caught their original release – I’m assuming
they were all released by a branch of the EMI Classics division
- though clarification on this point would be welcome. The
Copland duo was certainly released on EMI CDC-55405-2 and
the two Barbers on CDC 5-55400-2. I’ve not been able to track
the others.
But Baxtresser will be familiar from her
other discs and from her position as former principal flute
with the New York Philharmonic. Sharp-eyed readers will note
that the chamber forces were all then NYP principals. The
recital has a pleasing symmetry to it. The Devienne Duo is
full of rhythmic incision and variegated tone, not forgetting
a fine balance between flute and viola. Baxtresser and Phelps
play up the thematic inter-relatedness of the first movement
and the vivacity of the little Rondeau finale very stylishly
indeed.
The flautist is
clearly a firm proponent of Madeleine Dring. She’s also recorded
the Three Piece Suite – droll title, splendidly performed
– on Crystal, a disc I’ve reviewed here. The Trio for flute,
oboe and piano was composed in 1968 and wears decidedly Francophile
garb, with touches of Poulenc and maybe even Ibert in the
perky outer movements. But it’s the slow movement that these
players most relish, a gorgeous study in sun-dappled lyricism,
so beautifully set out for the three instruments to entwine
their song. Gaubert’s genuine Frenchness on the other hand
is of the Debussyan impressionist kind, fused with a fluid
Fauréan lyric. Most attractive is the light gauze of the Iberian
finale.
With Barber and
Copland we are back on solid ground for these exponents. Barber’s
elegy, his Canzone, is a short but warmly moving one – tinted,
maybe oddly to my ears, by Duruflé. The Summer Music is longer
at twelve minutes and multi-sectional. There’s some really
impressive articulation here, as well as fine control over
the decay of phrases and a puckish understanding of the wit
and energy this work conveys. Copland’s Duo is something of
a microcosm of his open air Appalachian style. It wanders
harmonically in the “somewhat mournful” central slow movement
but that vibrant plein air Copland self returns for
the finale.
There’s plenty
of variety here and some vivacious performances to boot. With
pertinent notes and sympathetic engineering these decade-old
performances make an invigorating new mark in the catalogues.
Jonathan
Woolf
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