The subtitle ("Pan
in Pieces") of this selection of
works for solo flute fairly sums up
the basic idea running throughout the
recital:. a varied collection of pieces
evoking Pan, in one way or another.
It appropriately opens with Debussy’s
celebrated Syrinx followed
by a very similar short work The
Ecstatic Shepherd by the ‘English
Debussy’, i.e. Cyril Scott. (Incidentally,
Scott’s piece has been recorded by Kenneth
Smith several years ago [ASV CD DCA
739].) Ary van Leeuwen was one of the
foremost flute virtuosi of his time.
He was hired by Mahler and went on to
become principal flautist with the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra under Sir Eugene
Goossens. The challenge of his Pan’s
Lament is, so we are told, to
give linear coherence to a score that
at first sight looks rather like a patchwork
of fragmentary ideas. Poulenc’s Le
joueur de flûte berce les ruines
is a real novelty, though not one to
greatly shatter our appreciation of
his output. This tiny sketch was composed
in 1942 probably as a gift to a friend
(we are not told), was lost for many
years and consequently never mentioned
in any worklist. It surfaced as recently
as 1997. The very detailed notes by
Bradley Wilber accompanying this release
mention that DeLaney’s lovely Hymn
to Pan was inspired by Shelley’s
eponymous poem. The French composer
Roger Bourdin, trained and active as
a flautist, is rather better-known for
short idiomatic pieces for flute, of
which Chanson de Pan and
Pan blessé are
– I think – good examples. These pieces
may be fairly well-known by flautists,
but less so by music lovers, so that
their inclusion here is most welcome.
All the pieces in the
second half of the present recital are
fairly recent, including several works
written as recently as 2003. Need I
say that all the composers, but one,
were unknown to me? Benjamin Boone’s
The Wood Nymph of Nonacris
composed in 1989, Mark Hijleh’s Syrinx,
Too as well as Binnette Lipper’s
Flute Flight are all overtly
inspired by Debussy’s Syrinx,
viewed – or, rather, heard – through
slightly more modern techniques. They
use more advanced playing techniques
such as lip bend and Flatterzung,
always tastefully and discretely so.
Russian-born Margarita Zelenaia’s Pan’s
Pastoral for a Shepherd has
a delightful, folk-like ring à
la Bartók. Pan(ic)
by Gene Pritsker might call Birtwistle’s
saxophone concerto to mind, but is nothing
like as controversial as that piece.
It nevertheless displays a good deal
of energy and is again quite idiomatically
written. David Golightly’s Three
Pan Love Songs are also beautifully
written, although they may be more complex,
technically speaking, but nonetheless
very attractive. This short triptych
is not unlike Golightly’s much earlier,
quite substantial work for solo clarinet
Moods (1980), available
on ASC CS CD2. Incidentally, at about
6 minutes, this is the longest work
here. The young French composer Pierre
Thilloy, whose name is also new to me,
is represented here by yet another beautiful
miniature Le Rêve de Pan.
By the way, there a
last track Woodland Sounds by
Dave Sluberski which simply rounds this
recital off with some recorded nature
sounds.
As already hinted at
in the above, all the pieces in this
recital are fairly short, and most of
them are similar, in spirit and letter.
I can imagine this selection being too
much of a good thing for some tastes.
If so, then, the best way to enjoy it
is to hear it in bits, a few pieces
at a time. However, there is enough
variety in the composers’ approach to
the Pan myth to avoid any monotony.
Anyway, Nina Assimakopoulos plays beautifully
throughout and her superb readings are
beautifully recorded. This release as
a whole is excessively well produced
with detailed notes that tell you anything
you want to know about the pieces and
their composers. It is adorned with
a beautiful, Pre-Raphaelite-looking
photograph of Nina. The only reservation
I have to express concerns the shamefully
short playing time. But this small point
apart, this is a most enjoyable recital.
Hubert Culot
Nina Assimakopoulos (flute)