Search - Paul Taffanel, Charles-Marie Widor, Eugene Bozza :: French Flute Music

The style of this music ranges from the easy late Romanticism of Widor and Caplet to the relatively challenging modern idiom of Jolivet. I like Jolivet best. His five incantations for unaccompanied flute are mesmerizing, and his Chant de Linos shows how to be lyrical within a mid-20th-century idiom. By comparison, the music by Taffanel, Bozza, and the others is lightweight entertainment, although mostly charming. Robert Aitken also plays Debussy's Syrinx, three minutes of unaccompanied flute magic, and for once he plays it slowly enough for the languorous atmosphere to come across. Actually, he plays everything well, and in the accompanied works Robin McCabe provides strong collaboration. --Leslie Gerber