Search - Marc-Andre Dalbavie, Michael Jarrell, Matthias Pintscher :: Flute Concertos by Dalbavie, Jarrell & Pintscher

A real review for an amazing disc

Daniel Graser | Wappingers Falls, New York United States | 09/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It seems that no one will go near this album simply because the composers are still alive so I think we at last need a real review of this fantastic accomplishment. All three concertos are in single movements and were commissioned for Pahud to be premiered with various orchestras. Starting with the Dalbavie we are given a long rhapsodic statement that blurs transition and sectional writing for a much more fluid work. This is not a "big" work and the actual orchestra employed is closer to a chamber orchestra with fewer wind parts than a typical modern full orchestra. Throughout the soloist is given several gestures that reverberate through the orchestra to form a constant dialogue. Often the orchestra is called upon to complete a motive presented by the flute most often the strings accomplish this though towards the middle and end of the work the brass contribute more heavily. The soloist's function is this work is not of technical bravado but more towards forming a complete dialogue with the accompanying orchestra, again to form a sort of rhapsodic fluidity between "sections". As a student of Donatoni and Boulez I was actually expecting Dalbavie's work to be a bit more aggressive and disjunct but the work is quite accessible and a pleasure to listen to.



The Jarrell concerto uses a completely different harmonic/melodic language than the Dalbavie and also employs the soloist and orchestra in different often opposing functions. The most celebrated Swiss composer of his time, Jarrell studied at IRCAM and many of the effects he calls upon from soloist and orchestra reflect this training. Also in more practical terms the orchestra is larger and much more aggressive. Jarrell's focus with the work is to highlight the different functions and characters of silence by evaporating several sections into nothing and beginning abruptly. Thus, the work is unified by the use of subito silence following long melodic gestures contrasted with harsh and pointed motives. The language and techniques used in this concerto are quite advanced and the soloist is required to flutter-tongue, slap/stop-tongue, and perform multiphonics in addition to very rapid multiple tonuging. I'll agree with the first strange reviewer below that this is definitely not easy listening when compared with Mozart but I have to say anything that Pahud performs becomes easy listening for me. The exceptional control Pahud has over all registers of his instrument make this very abstract music flow naturally. The end of this piece is just incredible with the strings sustaining a very airy cluster chord while the soloist fades away performing several percussive and air effects, bone-chilling!



Illustrating a cd program based on progression from relative accessibility to complex language to total abstraction, the final work by Matthias Pintscher is again a completely different language than either of the first two works. At least to my ears, the use of the flute hear is less as a flute and more as an air-effect machine requiring several nuanced articulations to display Pintscher's affinity for the relationship between the human air stream and the actual vibrating mechanism it becomes when striking the flute. The orchestra is similarly employed as an atmosphere of effects, a very large backdrop against which the flute becomes the connecting thread. Several solo sections start from very simple air effects to complex multi-effect gestures that become more unstable and virtuosic and are then passed to the orchestra that add a severe amount of "bite." The enjoyment (at least for me) in this work was the general feeling of instability where the orchestra occasionally would be a stable atmospheric backdrop (think Ligeti Atmospheres) only to explode with abandon the next instant with the soloist trying to ride the wave. The progression from abstract pontillist sounds to longer sustained periods of virtuosity mainly toward the middle-end of the work demands a great deal from the soloist. Again needless to say Pahud makes this sound effortless and inhabits the character of the work with great command.



If you were previously listening to Pahud's recordings as a pleasing backdrop to coffee and cake this is not the recording for you. If you are interested in exploring a different side of this amazing artist as well as hearing three completely different works make powerful statements in a post-tonal language then you can't go wrong with this recording. Superb playing throughout from soloist and orchestra. Contemporary music needs artists of such accomplishment and abilities to be involved in the process of commissioning and promoting new music. I would love to hear a solo cd of some 20th and 21st century music from Pahud displaying his command of the modern techniques in a more intimate setting. Wonderful recording of very advanced and enjoyable music!"

A mixed bag

Christopher Culver | 01/23/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's good to see that in an era when most major classical labels have given up on contemporary repertoire, EMI still puts out uncompromising collections like this. Emmanuel Pahud is the soloist in three very different flute concertos, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France led by a changing cast of conductors. While the Dalbavie tends to be pretty accessible, the works by Pintscher and Jarrell are the high modernism of today. Each of the three concertos hovers around the 20 minute mark.



Marc Dalbavie's Flute Concerto (2006) is very representative of the composer, who writes in a style he calls "metatonality" that reconciles the Western common-practice tonal tradition and the spectralist discoveries of the 1970s and 1980s. Sometimes Dalbavie's music sounds like Gerard Grisey, sometimes like a fractured Debussy, but always with a sense of forward motion and a frequent brass glow. It can sometimes feel that he has amassed himself a collection of stock gestures, which makes me a bit apprehensive about his music's ultimate greatness, but he is always entertaining. If you enjoy this concerto and want to hear more by Dalbavie, I'd recommend the Naïve disc Color. And if you know him only from his Piano Concerto on a recent EMI disc, which many felt was something of a disappointment given its poor piano writing, the solo part here in the Flute Concerto is much more expressive and virtuosic.



Michael Jarrell's "...un temp de silence..." (2007) opens with a darting flute line over orchestral jabs that reminds me a bit of Boulez's "...explosante-fixe...". But the key concern of the piece is revealed when this aggressive landscape suddenly falls away to a handful of players and the flautist's line dissolves into extended techniques. In one dialogue after another with changing orchestral forces, the flautist moves into silence. A lot of modernist pieces seem to end arbitrarily, but Jarrell bring us to a moving close where the flute line seems to evaporate away completely. This is not a great work, but it's entertaining and it does make me want to seek out more by this Swiss composer.



Matthias Pintscher's "Transir" for flute and chamber orchestra (2005-06) is the one disappoinment here. Pitscher's style is similar to Olga Neuwirth and Bruno Mantovani in that his music is a succession of varied and highly detailed gestures that almost seem whispered at the audience. A couple of minutes of this is nice, but there's rarely any sense of large form, and even when there is, it seems an accident. What passages seem sensible are more throwbacks to Ligeti's "Apparitions" than something bold and fresh.



On good days, when I'm not inclined to complain about Dalbavie repeating himself, this is a pretty good disc. Certainly Pahud's technique is flawless and Jarrell's music seems promising. But I can't for the life of me understand why Pintscher is considered one of the hottest young composers right now."