MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Aram KHACHATURIAN (1903-1978)
Flute Concerto [37:00]
Einojuhani RAUTAVAARA (b. 1928)
Flute Concerto, op. 69 “Dances with the Winds”: original version for four flutes [20:35]
Flute Concerto, op. 69 “Dances with the Winds”: revised version for three flutes [20:30]
Sharon Bezaly (flutes)
Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra/Enrique Diemecke (Khachaturian)
Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Dima Slobodeniouk (Rautavaara)
rec. February 2010, Sala Sao Paulo, Brazil (Khachaturian), November 2014, Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland (Rautavaara)
BIS BIS-1849 [79:10]

Sharon Bezaly is likely the most well-known flute soloist since Jean-Pierre Rampal. The first work on this recording establishes a connection between the two. Rampal adapted Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto for flute, creating the Flute Concerto found here.

Is the Flute Concerto a lively romp, as one might expect from acquaintance with the ballets, particularly the Sabre Dance? Indeed it is. It’s hard to believe that, as the liner notes tell us, Khachaturian’s work was accused of “formalistic distortions”, and kept under wraps in the late 40’s and early 50’s, until the thaw after Stalin and Zhdanov. This work is vivid, but hardly abstract or “anti-democratic”.

Of course, the flute brings a completely different personality to a concerto than does a violin. In this work, however, as performed by Bezaly, there is no sacrifice in virtuosity or interest.

The orchestra accompanying in this concerto is the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. They are quickly building a worthy legacy of recordings, particularly on BIS and Naxos. Their work here adds to their stature. All told, the Khachaturian performance is highly recommended.

Rautavaara may be a Finn, but his Flute Concerto, titled “Dances with the Winds”, also comes with an air of the exotic and eastern. It is, however, a quieter and more introspective work. The notes remark on the influence of Debussy and Messiaen.

This concerto comes in two versions, both present on this recording. The first requires the soloist to switch among four flutes: piccolo, standard, alto, and bass. In the “more practical” second version, the alto flute also carries the parts written for the bass flute in the first version.

In the Rautavaara concerto, Bezaly is accompanied by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its incoming music director Dima Slobodeniouk. The combination they produce for this work sounds like a cold, Nordic take on French Orientalism, with occasional outbursts that sound like “symphonic dances, with flutes”. I assume this is what the composer intended, but it’s an uneasy combination of flavours.

Khachaturian’s work is of lasting value. My opinion of Rautavaara’s is more ambivalent, but I do think it’s worth hearing and forming one’s own judgement. Given the two versions of the latter work, you won’t want to put this disc in and listen to it straight through in one sitting.
 
Brian Burtt

 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing