An interesting CD this because neither work was written
for the flute; they are both ex-violin concertos dating from 1940. Barber’s
was transcribed by the soloist here, Jennifer Stinton, with permission
from the Barber estate. Of the two works this perhaps underscores the
loss of the violin sound in a work which, similarly to the Korngold
violin concerto, is very much attuned to and dependent on its sounds
and colours. On the other hand the Khachaturian concerto, which Jean-Pierre
Rampal transcribed under the scrutiny of the composer, works exceptionally
well. Barber’s work has a strange history, for the first two movements
were considered too easy by the player who was to play its first performance,
Iso Briselli, the adopted son of the American businessman who commissioned
the work. When Briselli saw and played the first two movements, he complained
that they were not taxing or virtuosic enough, so Barber followed them
up with a snorter of a finale, which Briselli naturally could not play.
When the commission money was claimed back, Barber said he had spent
it in Europe, though in exchange for the first performance rights he
did return half his fee. It was Albert Spalding who first played the
complete work on 7 February 1941 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under
Ormandy.
Khachaturian’s is an opulently exotic work until the
zipping finale, and is Russian to the core in terms of its orchestration.
It is also a highly Romantic work (so is Barber’s but with plenty of
other flavours such as jazz), which David Oistrakh played for the first
time on 16 November 1940 as part of the Second Festival of Soviet Music
in Moscow. There’s a lot of material which pervades the whole work from
the outset, both its rhythms and melodic shapes, while one is never
far from the Orient in its tonal colours and meandering melodic outlines.
Jennifer Stinton is a fine flautist and the Barber
deserves a public outing (apparently this recording predates any such
event though things may have changed during the past ten years since
it was made) and she goes fearlessly for the technical hurdles just
like any violinist would. Obviously she cannot double stop and both
ends of the instrument’s range are curtailed, but she provides skilful
alternatives on the whole. Rampal provided his own cadenza for the Khachaturian
and the composer professed himself highly satisfied. In the case of
the Barber, if you haven’t got it already, get the violin concerto in
its original form and add this highly interesting alternative to it.
Christopher Fifield
Jennifer Stinton
(flute) 
