Flute Concerto / Flute Sonata / Aria e danza / Landscape with Birds Naxos 8.572634
Renowned for its luminosity and searing expressiveness, the music of Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks frequently explores the relationship between nature and humanity, not least in the Flute Concerto written for Michael Faust, which is among the most expansive of Vasks’ orchestral works. Abstract qualities in the Sonata contrast with the deftly defined lyrical and rhythmic elements of Aria e danza, while Landscape with Birds exploits the entirety of the flute’s timbral range. Patrick Gallois and “the brilliant Michael Faust” (MusicWeb International) have also recorded the music of Mauricio Kagel (Naxos 8.572635).
Review:
Enjoying a life as an orchestral double-bass in his native Latvia for eleven
years, Peteris Vasks only began to study composition in 1973 at the age of
twenty-six. Today he is regarded as the one of the nation’s most important
musical voices in a wide range of genres. He is also a modern-day composer who
has returned to the fundamentals of tonality and the academic rectitudes of the
20th century. Yet within those boundaries he has developed his own style, his
harmonies unusual and highly attractive. The present disc covers much that he
has written for solo flute, including the world premiere recording of the Flute
Concert in its 2011 revision. Composed for the German flautist, Michael Faust,
the soloist on this disc, it is a brilliant showpiece of technical brilliance,
the quirky central Burlesca offering an exacting test of agility as the music
flies around the instrument. The unaccompanied Sonata for Flute and Alto Flute
covers much the same ground, the Alto Flute in the pensive outer movements
surrounding the deftness required for the central movement. Michael Faust,
presently principal flute with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, is the
outstanding soloist who makes light of technical demands. Conductor, Patrick
Gallois, obtains excellent playing from the Sinfonia Finlandia in the concerto,
while the highly detailed recording has the flute in close proximity.
David Denton, David's Review Corner