Frank Martin - Complete Music with Flute (Daniele Ruggieri)

Information

Composer: Frank Martin

• Sonata da chiesa
• Deuxieme ballade
• Ballade
• Quatre sonnets pour Cassandre
• Trois chants de Noël
• Pièce brève
• Drey Minnelieder

Daniele Ruggieri, flute

Monica Bacelli, voice / Aldo Orvieto, piano / Pierpaolo Turetta, organ

Ex NOVO Ensemble

    Mario Paladin viola

    Carlo Teodoro cello

    Rossana Calvi oboe

    Nicoletta Sanzin harp

Date: 2024

Label: Brilliant Classics

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Review

A unique combination on record of chamber music by the Swiss composer, surveying the development of his voice and career through the medium of the flute. One of music's late starters, Frank Martin grew up as the tenth child of a Swiss pastor and his wife, surrounded by the music of Bach and Mozart. Only once Ernest Ansermet had founded the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande in 1918 did the twenty-eight-year-old Martin begin to discover and become captivated by the sensuality of Debussy and Ravel, and this stylistic dichotomy continued to play out in his own music. Among the most polished and individual of his early works is the set of four love-sonnets composed in 1921 to poems by the sixteenth-century balladeer Pierre de Ronsard. Already the influence of modernism is apparent on the angular and even ascetic shape of Martin's melodic invention, and yet a gentle, atmospheric mood pervades the cycle; this, too, would become a hallmark of his sound-world. In 1939, Martin began what would become a series of instrumental ballades with the competition piece which is still his best-known work for flute. In the same year, he followed it up with a Ballade for alto saxophone which he then arranged for flute; both works are fine examples of Martin's ability to reconcile serialism with tonality. A neoclassical (or rather, neo-Baroque) spirit infuses the Sonata da Chiesa of 1940 with solemn, Protestant gravity, yet the flute part still sings with the lyricism of the early Sonnets. From after the war, the Trois Chants de Noël (1947) distil the mystery of Christmas into three brief settings of texts by the Swiss poet Albert Rudhardt (1894-1944). A trio of Minnelieder (1961) masterfully strips Martin's language to the bone in a distinctive 'late style', where flute and guitar support and punctuate the sung line with an archaically flavoured modernity. Almost all these works have attracted no more than one or two recordings, but gathered together by these expert Italian musicians, they paint a new and compelling portrait of Frank Martin as a spiritually engaged modernist.

— Geoff Pearce

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Frank Martin (15 September 1890 – 21 November 1974) was a Swiss composer. Born in Geneva, he studied under Joseph Lauber and Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. He served as president of the Swiss Musicians' Union (1943–1946) before moving to the Netherlands. A performer as well as a composer, Martin toured widely as a pianist and harpsichordist. His compositions blended German influences, especially Bach, with French harmonic innovations. Notable works include the oratorios Le Vin herbé and Golgotha, the opera Der Sturm, and a Requiem, along with numerous concertos, orchestral and chamber works.

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Daniele Ruggieri is a flautist who studied in Venice under Guido Novello and later in Geneva with Maxence Larrieu, earning the Prix de Virtuosité. He has been awarded several prizes at international competitions and prestigious awards, including the 2019 Abbiati Prize and the 2023 Gold Guitar award. A frequent performer at major European festivals and venues, Ruggieri has collaborated with renowned orchestras and premiered works by many contemporary composers. A founding member of the Ex NOVO Ensemble, he has recorded over thirty albums, as well as broadcasts for major European radio networks.

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