Laurel Zucker's Cantilena label
has been prolifically productive
and all the more welcome for the
warm music-making of Zucker and
her instrumental partners. From
its considerable catalogue here
are three discs each pairing Zucker's
flute with one other instrument.
All Cantilena issues feature strikingly
coloured cover art by Dee Sanchez
and all use heavy card sleeves with
a glued in plastic stem face into
which the disc is fitted. The sleeves
carry concise information about
the music and the composers and
are miracles of good design which
balance pleasure for the eye with
the legibility necessary to carry
information.
Sonata da Camera
Roberto Sierra (b. 1953) wrote his
set of ten miniatures, Flower
Pieces in 1994. They are short
warm and sensuous. Everything breathes
a warm and fragrant beauty. A Puerto
Rican who studied with Ligeti, Sierra's
music is in this case sensuous and
melodic - a near cousin to Ravel's
Introduction and Allegro.
Alwyn's Naiades is designated
a Fantasy-Sonata and its
ecstatic light-bathed warmth, a
degree more sultry than the Sierra,
is evidence of Alwyn's grounding
as a professional flautist. Zucker
shows the ability to hold wondrously
long notes with seemingly endless
breath reserves and little aural
evidence of gasps of breath. Nuncio
F Mondello was better known in America’s
jazz band circuit as Toots Mondello.
His pensively melancholic Poem
shows Mondello's other face as a
classical composer in the warm Ravelian
tradition. The movements of Marius
Flothuis's Sonata da Camera are
encompass warm and dreamy, slyly
jazzy, slow motion Havanaise and
evening whimsy. David Noon was a
pupil of Davidovsky and Milhaud
and has had a most distinguished
academic career in the USA. His
Sonata da Camera in four
movements breaks the sultry-ecstatic
mood of the rest of the disc with
some lively, rhythmic, good-humoured
fun, breaking off only in the long
Sarabande for a touching
and yearningly nostalgic moment
- not at all archaic in its resonance.
Romanza Andaluza
Zucker's gorgeous tone, tasteful
phrasing and breath control here
meet the clean and pleasingly judged
playing of Marc Delpriora in a collection
with an Hispanic emphasis. The Sarasate
strikes a warm egalitarian balance
between the two instruments and
is well within the Iberian style.
The little known Pessard is represented
by a graceful Andalouse.
The four movement Buenos Aires
(1995) by Pujol ‘unlulls’ us
into something with vitality and
snappy jazzy pace in Pompeya,
finds a classical style for the
cool evening of Palermo,
syncopated playfulness in San Telmo
and finally in this ever so
slightly commercial suite comes
Microcentro with its anxious
welter of interleaved down-pattering
figures and siren wails. The other
two part Pujol work is similar in
its engaging atmosphere and well
worth hearing for its poetry and
rhythmic urgency. I recommend hearing
the Candombe de los Buenos Tiempo
for its optimistic throwing
aside of the pervasive heat. It
has a remarkably engaging liveliness
complete with percussive effects
delivered against the bodywork of
the guitar. Rodrigo's Aria Antiqua
does indeed look back to earlier
ages in music of largely slow dignity.
There is more of that in the Andante
moderato of the Serenata
al alba del Dia but the better
known Rodrigo of the guitar concertos
can be discerned very clearly in
the Allegro at tr. 12. Gonzalez's
lighter-hearted Danza de los
Amantes Efimeros was originally
for violin and guitar but has been
transcribed by Zucker. This Colombian
composer's piece has an original
and fantastical air breaking out
of any suggestion of hackneyed territory.
The disc finishes with three transcriptions
from Granados's Danzas espagnoles
amongst which the clever and
endearing Danza triste stands
out (tr. 14).
Master Music
This is not I think the first time
Franck's violin sonata has been
recorded in a version for flute
and piano. It gives another warmer
accent to this well known work and
also shows Zucker breaking away
from her accustomed territory of
suites, genre pieces and atmosphere
poems. This grand work of the romantic
repertoire receives the customary
warm and long-lined lyrical treatment.
It works remarkably well especially
in the finale. The piano is tactfully
balanced and if anything sounds
as if its top end presence has been
toned down so that at all times
it sounds velvety and hardly ever
percussive. Ravel's sultry Pièce
en forme de Habanera is given
here in the transcription by Louis
Fleury and at moments looks forward,
not very far, to the Rapsodie
espagnole. Fauré's Morceau
de concours is one of a host
of competition pieces - ultimately
unremarkable. The Debussy Little
Shepherd (no. 5 from Children's
Corner) is warmly fruity and
fades into an evening that seems
to breathe Saharan heat. Schubert's
Introduction and Variations on
a Theme from the Mullerlieder (not
Mullerleider, Cantilena)
op. 25 makes a rare and poetic rare
appearance in this classically-based
collection. The extended and inventive
Variations are on the song Trockne
(not Trochne) Blumen
from Schöne Müllerin.
Usually anything by the prolific
and long-lived Milhaud is going
to be a delight and so it proves
with the flute Sonatine.
There's a sinuously insidious Tendre,
a troubled rippling Souple with
some shivering undercurrents and
a final confident almost swaggering
Clair. Marc Shapira is discreetly
supportive throughout. Zucker is
very much in the foreground and
no one can regret that in the face
of such emotionally communicative
playing.
Rob Barnett
Note from Claude Torres
Readers may be itnerested to know
that the following compositions
by Marius Flothuis were written
in Camp Vught (1943-1945):-
1943 Sonata da camera : for flute
and piano : opus 17 (8')
1944 Aria : for trumpet and piano
: opus 18 (4')
1944 Concert : for flute and orchestra:
opus 19 (22') - Ed. Everard van
Royen. 1. Introduzione-Tango e Walzer-Coda
- 2. Rondo - 3. Variazioni
1944 Aubade for flute solo opus
19a. - Ed. Everard van Royen
1945 Ronde champêtre : for
flute and harpsichord : opus 19b
(3')
1944 Bicinia : Bicinia op.20, for
Female Choir : opus 20 (8').
1. Rondel / text v. Demoustier -
2. Ronde / text v. P. Fort - 3.
Kyrie - 4. Lied / text v. G. Gossaert
- 5. Abschiedslied - 6. Copla /
text v. H. de Vries
1944 Valses sentimentales : for
4-hands piano : opus 21 (5') Orchestrated
1946
1944 Two pieces for guitar : opus
22 (8'). 1. Folia - 2. Habanera
1944 Duettino pastorale : for 2
violins : opus 23 no. 2 (4'). 1.
Preludio - 2. Canzonetta - 3. Rondo
1945 Sonate : for violin solo :
opus 23 no. 3 (16'). - Ed. Michel
Lacor. - Copenhagen. 1948. (16')
1. Fantasia (Allegro moderato) -
2. Andante - 3. Molto vivace - 4.
Rondo (Allegretto leggiero)
Four bagatelles, op. 23 no. 1-4-5-6
for violin and piano (1944 - 1946)
1945 Concerto for horn and small
orchestra opus 24 (1022 / 0000 /
timp 6vla 4vc 2cb) (16')
1945 Three for 2 horns opus 24a
(3')
These works will be recorded and
released in the series "KZ
Musik" by Membran
Aubade for flute solo op. 19a (1944)
Twee Stukken op.22, guitar
Duettino pastorale op.23 N°2,
2 violins
Bicinia op.20, Female Choir
KZ Musik Vol. 7
Sonata da Camera for flute and
piano, opus 17
Aria, op.18, trumpet and piano
KZ Musik Vol. 8
Valses sentimentales op.21, piano
4 hands
KZ Musik Vol. 10
Sonata op.23 N°3, violin
KZ Musik Vol. 11
Concerto pour flûte et orchestre
Op.19
Ronde champêtre, op. 19b for
flute and harpsichord (1945)
Vier bagatellen, op. 23 no. 1-4-5-6
for violin and piano (1944 - 1946)
Concerto op. 24, horn/Chamber orch.
Trois pièces, op. 24a for
2 horns (1945)
Future releases
Claude Torres
Montpellier
France
Laurel
Zucker (flute); Mark Delpriora (guitar) 
