Various Composers - Great Works for Flute and Orchestra (Sharon Bezaly; Neeme Järvi)

Information

• Carl Nielsen - Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, FS 119
• Charles Tomlinson Griffes - Poem for Flute and Orchestra
• Carl Reinecke - Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D major, Op. 283
• Cécile Chaminade - Concertino for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 107
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Largo and Allegro for two flutes and strings (arr. Ernest Sauter)
• Francis Poulenc - Flute Sonata (orch. Lennox Berkeley)
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - The Flight of the Bumblebee (arr. Kalevi Aho)

Sharon Bezaly, flute

Residentie Orkest Den Haag

Neeme Järvi, conductor

Date: 2013

Label: BIS

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

When Sharon Bezaly releases a new album, the critic’s job is basically to inform you that it exists. She’s so good, so consistent, and so adventurous, that it’s nearly impossible to go wrong. Here she tackles the well-known Nielsen Flute Concerto, with admirably crisp, incisive accompaniment by the Residentie Orkest and Neeme Järvi - those thrilling timpani. Then it’s on to less well-known works like the gay American impressionist Charles Griffes’ Poem, a sort of Debussy-goes-west tone picture. Carl Reinecke’s rather old-fashioned concerto, from the Germanic school of Mendelssohn, sticks to gentle lyricism and weaves the flute through almost every bar. When the flute is silent, the clarinet is playing, as at the start of finale, where it seems to hijack the concerto. Maybe it’s Bezaly’s constant presence, but for once Järvi’s icy demeanour doesn’t de-romanticize the affair.

 

Although the miniatures by Chaminade and Tchaikovsky are appealing, my favourite works are the two saved for last. Francis Poulenc’s flute sonata is unutterably wonderful and a classic. This is an orchestration by his friend Lennox Berkeley, who does a better job than I had expected. My colleague Brian Wilson says he might even prefer this to the original. I’ve certainly listened to it many times over, even separately from the rest of the album. Then there’s the encore, an imaginative, Technicolor rewrite of Flight of the Bumblebee by Kalevi Aho. Bezaly dances through a flurry of notes while the brass section snarls and the rest of the orchestra moves like pieces in a kaleidoscope.

 

Although the violins get audibly lazy from 7:25 in the Griffes work, the orchestra is generally very good, with piercing horns and Järvi’s usual rhythmically snappy percussion sections. The recorded sound, on the FLACs I downloaded from eClassical, is pretty much astonishing. If you want to show off your stereo system with a flute album for some reason, this is the one.

 

— Brian Reinhart

-----------------------------------------------------------

Sharon Bezaly (born 2 October 1972) is an Israeli flautist. Born in Tel Aviv, she rose rapidly after beginning the flute at age 11, debuting with the Israel Philharmonic at 14. Following studies in France with leading flautists, she served as principal flute of the Camerata Academica Salzburg before pursuing an international solo career. Bezaly has performed with major orchestras at leading venues worldwide and has premiered numerous commissioned works, several now standard repertoire. She records exclusively for BIS, with an extensive and award-winning discography. Her flute was made by Muramatsu out of 24-carat gold.

***

Neeme Järvi (born 7 June 1937 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under Evgeny Mravinsky and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others. Järvi was Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony (1982–2004), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1984–1988), Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1990–2005) and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2012–2015), among others. He made over 400 recordings for labels such as BIS, Chandos and Deutsche Grammophon and best known for his interpretations of Romantic and 20th century classical music.

-----------------------------------------------------------