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             


CD REVIEW

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

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS


Nordic Spell – Sharon Bezaly
Kalevi AHO (b. 1949)

Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (2002)* [30:34]
Haukur TÓMASSON (b. 1960)

Flute Concerto No. 2 (2001)** [21:43]
Christian LINDBERG (b. 1958)

The World of Montuagretta - Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (2001-02)† [20:48]
Sharon Bezaly (flute)
* Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä
** Iceland Symphony Orchestra/Bernharður Wilkinson
†Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Christian Lindberg
rec. 28-29 November 2003, Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland (Aho); June 2004, Háskólabíó, Reykjavik, Iceland (Tómasson); 10-11 November 2003, Örebro Concert Hall, Sweden (Lindberg). DDD
BIS-CD-1499 [74:27]
Experience Classicsonline


I first succumbed to flautist Sharon Bezaly’s spell on BIS’s Seascapes disc, where she plays Zhou Long’s The Deep, Deep Sea (review). I was struck then by her technique and the generosity and warmth of her playing. And she seems willing to take on the most demanding pieces; at the 2008 Proms she tackled Nigel Osborne’s fiendishly difficult Flute Concerto which, despite her best efforts, was less than memorable.

The good news is that Bezaly is in fine form on this disc, which contains flute pieces dedicated to her. The first, a concerto by the Kalevi Aho, is an intensely personal piece. Written in 2002, when the composer was coming to terms with the death of his father and the long illness of a much-loved spaniel, the work begins with the gentlest of entries for harp and flute. It’s quiet, reflective and, as so often with Aho, it’s direct and unpretentious.

More than that the first movement – marked Misterioso, adagio – is a lovely, tender piece of writing, with little of the dynamic swings we hear in his other concertos – the ‘monumental’ Cello Concerto comes to mind. These two works couldn’t be more different in their mood and manner. That said, at 6:38 there is grief and turmoil, but the soloist soon restores the air of quiet solitude. Bezaly’s tone is warm and songful throughout, but then this is the kind of music she does best.

Aho admits he had been reading the works of Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer and intended to write a set of orchestral songs before deciding on a purely orchestral piece. As with the Chinese Songs and the Dayflies music of the Symphonic Dances, this concerto has a wonderful evanescent quality that is carried through to the Presto, leggiero. Bezaly’s limpid tone is entirely apt here, just before an orchestral crescendo gives way to music of exuberance and vitality. Throughout the composer maintains a marvellous sense of scale, never losing sight of the score’s more intimate, human dimension.

Osmo Vänskä and his Lahti orchestra, the mainstays of BIS’s Aho cycle, don’t disappoint either. The now familiar Sibelius Hall has a most grateful acoustic and the engineers certainly achieve a warm, natural balance that highlights the ‘hear through’ quality of Aho’s writing. Even in the slow-burning crescendo that begins at around 7:46 – now this is the composer we know from the symphonies, impassioned, powerful – Vänskä remains in control of the music’s dynamics. As the second movement slips seamlessly into the Epilogue Bezaly enchants, her long, singing lines simply spellbinding. This is lovely playing and Aho gives the soloist plenty to work with. As so often with this composer the final pages are surprisingly muted; in this case they’re poignant, too.

The Icelandic composer Haukur Tómasson is new to me, and I see from the liner-notes that he has won a number of prestigious music awards at home. His Flute Concerto No. 2 is cast in five interrelated movements, the first of which is marked Calmo. It’s a very different sound world from Aho’s, although it shares the latter’s economy of style and his penchant for unusual sonorities. That said, Tómasson seems to focus much more on specific, repeated timbres and rhythmic cells, the flute just one of several melodic strands.

The second movement, Scorrevole (flowing), has some very striking rhythmic and percussive elements, garlanded by bright, agile figures on the flute. Perhaps this is music that delights the ear rather than engages the emotions but it’s none the worse for that. In fact, when it’s as well structured and essayed as this it’s very compelling indeed.

There is a hypnotic calm to the third movement, with its mix of sustained passages and repeated rhythmic patterns. And for the first time the soloist is given more to do, underpinned by simple, even stark, instrumental interjections. Given the work’s provenance one might be tempted to think of fire and ice, such is the music’s mix of hard and soft edges. The Iceland Symphony play with real flair – as indeed they do in the recent Chandos disc of d’Indy pieces (see review). In both cases they are very well served by the recording engineers.

The final movements – Scintellante and Ardente – are self- explanatory, the former pointillist in its drops of instrumental colour. This really is an alluring soundscape, full of unusual sounds and rhythmic events. Even more appealing is that this music, like much of Aho’s, is presented in a refreshing, non-didactic way. The ease and agility of Bezaly’s playing makes a strong impression throughout.

As for Christian Lindberg I have only encountered him as a performer – he is the soloist in Aho’s Symphony No. 9 for trombone and orchestra – so I was curious to hear what he is like as both composer and conductor. The invented subtitle of this concerto, The World of Montuagretta, is loosely based on a documentary about the so-called travesti (cross-dressers) of Brazil, harrowing images from which had a profound effect on the composer. It’s not as grim or unrelenting as it first seems, for as Lindberg explains in his liner-notes the real story is that of the young travesti’s persistent humanity in the face of terrible adversity.

The five movements are given imaginary titles – Lindberg is at pains to distance himself from the tale, yet he has to remain involved enough to tell it. It’s a highly unusual conceit – and potentially a very awkward one – but I’m pleased to report it works rather well. The pure tones of the flute – sounding suitably transcendent – rise above the rough rhythms of the streets and the sudden bass drum interjections. There is much animation and high spirits too, Lindberg and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra articulating those Latin rhythms with style.

It’s a strange juxtaposition of real and imagined images but it does add up to a convincing musical whole. There are some wonderfully poignant moments – just listen to the haunting third movement, the flute dancing above a sustained and muted bass line. I was alternately moved and impressed by these conflicting moods, all achieved with an economy of style, all the more telling for being so simply done. The end of the third movement is particularly memorable in this respect.

But even without this subtext the concerto has much to delight the ear. Certainly Bezaly despatches the trills of the fifth movement with consummate ease, before the final movement starts with a burst of Latin heat and light. The percussion is well caught here and the amount of audible instrumental detail is astonishing. The work then moves into another of those haunted phases halfway through the final movement, with some ethereal passages before the bass drum brings it all back to earth.

My main interest was the Aho concerto but I’m delighted to have discovered the Tómasson and Lindberg pieces along the way. They are all rather intimate works that suit Bezaly’s expressive playing. Not major works, perhaps, but highly individual ones that should be more widely heard.

Dan Morgan

see also review by Jonathan Woolf RECORDING OF THE MONTH August 2005

The Music of Kalevi Aho by Dan Morgan

 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos 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

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.