(++++) WINDS AND OTHERS

Music for Woodwind Orchestra by Philip Sparke, Gary Carpenter, Christopher Hussey, and Adam Gorb. Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble conducted by Shea Lolin. Divine Art. $18.99.

Louis Karchin: Music for Winds and Keyboard. Bridge Records. $16.99.

John Buckley: Music for Flute and Piano. Emma Coulthard, flute; David Appleton, piano; Emma Halnan, second flute. Métier. $18.99.

Music for Flute and Harp by Mozart, Ibert, Bach, Lutosławski, Satie, Lachlan Skipworth, Elena Kats-Chernin, Christopher Sainsbury, Jessica Wells, and Sally Greenaway. Sally Walker, flute; Emily Granger, harp. AVIE. $17.99.

     Although strings and piano tend to get most of the attention in contemporary chamber-music performance, there is some very worthwhile music for winds out there as well – including pieces that may reach beyond the core audience that actively seeks out works by today’s composers. The four British composers whose works for winds are heard on a new Divine Art recording (originally released a decade ago on a label called Legni Classics) all have a sure sense of style, write idiomatically for woodwinds, and seem more concerned with the old-fashioned notion of connecting with an audience that with producing music solely for the cognoscenti. The composers are not well-known, and neither is the music: only one piece, Overture for Woodwinds by Philip Sparke (born 1951), has been recorded before. This is the work that opens the disc, and it makes a suitable curtain raiser: nicely blended, effectively paced, and not over-long (six minutes). Like the other pieces here, it is scored for a comparatively large woodwind ensemble (18 players), but retains a chamber-music feel by avoiding lengthy passages of massed instruments. After this, Pantomime by Gary Carpenter (born 1951) is offered: a five-movement suite, it includes a pleasant “Cavatina,” some not-quite-danceable dances, and a march – and culminates in a waltz labeled “Depravity,” which is a bit of an overstatement for the amusing movement. The fourth movement, “Grand March (of the Chief Executive),” which starts with an actual bit of Mahler before becoming anything but grand, is especially clever. The work as a whole is accessible and well-written for the woodwind group. It is followed on the CD by the first of two works by Christopher Hussey (born 1974): Dreamtide, a three-movement piece (originally for mixed choir, arranged for woodwinds by the composer) that tries a bit too hard to be impressionistic but is nicely scored, with some good contrasts of tempo and rhythm. Next is the three-movement Battle Symphony by Adam Gorb (born 1958), which is a bit like an update of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s 1673 Battalia – an impression made immediately when the first movement opens with a “Flourish” that is definitely in tune (so to speak) with Biber’s time. Gorb includes non-Biber-ish elements such as “Soldiers’ Drunken Panic,” but “Lament for the Dead,” “Triumphal Dance” and other sections fit right in with an old-style battle. And the orchestration, while it has modern touches here and there, is for the most part determinedly old-fashioned. Indeed, all these woodwind works hew fairly closely to older compositional styles than the avant-garde ones so often favored in contemporary chamber music; as a result, all are accessible to any audience. The composers do know how to speak a more-modern language when they wish, however. The final work on the disc, Hussey’s three-movement Twisted Skyscape, may not push the winds into uncomfortable sonic distortions, but its aural landscape and frequent lapses into dissonance leave no doubt about its modern provenance. This disc is altogether successful in exposing listeners to new and interesting woodwind works that are played to excellent effect by the very fine musicians of the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble under Shea Lolin.

     Winds are employed strictly at chamber-music size and in much more typical 21^st-century form in the music by Louis Karchin (born 1951) on a (+++) Bridge Records CD. The most-extended work here, the four-movement Quintet for Winds (2021), immediately announces itself with dissonance and contrasts between solo and grouped instruments, and proceeds in fits and starts without much lyricism or forward motion, but with plenty of color in the instrumental mixture. The performance by Windscape (Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Randall Ellis, oboe; Alan R. Kay, clarinet; David Jolley, French horn; Frank Morelli, bassoon) is well-balanced, nicely played and has some welcome touches of humor – especially in the third-movement Scherzando, which really does sound as if the players are joking around a bit. The other woodwind work on the CD is Summer Song (1994/2021) for solo clarinet (Marianne Gythfeldt); this sounds like an étude exploring the instrument’s full range and various techniques for playing it – songful, however, it is not. The remaining pieces on this disc are for keyboard instruments. Sonata-Fantasia (2020) is for piano (Stephen Drury) and has a proclamatory opening that turns into a wide-ranging exploration of the instrument – here too there is an étude feeling about the music. Three Images (2020), also for piano (Michael Stephen Brown), is suitably upbeat in “Festivals,” mildly mysterious in “Labyrinths,” and pleasantly bouncy in “Carousel” despite lacking any round-and-round-we-go feeling. The third piano work here is the short A Jersey Reverie on New York Notes (2018), played by Han Chen and giving the impression of a halting nocturne. The CD concludes with Processions (2007/2021) for organ (Carson Cooman), which offers some interesting contrasts but is structured with irregular rhythms and pacing that have little to do with the processional form. The CD will be of greatest value to listeners already familiar with Karchin’s music and interested in a smattering of his chamber works.

     Somewhat analogously, aficionados of the music of John Buckley (born 1951) will be the main audience for a (+++) CD of his flute-and-piano music on the Métier label. Actually, the disc mixes flute-and-piano works with others involving the flute, resulting in a more-varied aural experience than if everything had been for the same two-instrument combination. The very first piece here is Five Études for Two Flutes, which are neatly reflective of their titles (e.g., “Perpetuum Mobile,” “Canon”) but sound as if they are more fun to play than simply to hear – although the concluding “Streetcar” is an enjoyable romp. Next is In Memoriam Doris Keogh, for flute and piano – a work memorializing the Irish flautist and teacher (1922-2012). The three-movement piece, intricate and insistently modern in harmony and rhythmic irregularity, is most effective in its central and longest movement, “Nocturne.” Two Fantasias for Alto Flute and Airflow (for solo flute) give Emma Coulthard ample opportunity to demonstrate both sound and technique, with the attractively exploratory Airflow being the most-interesting of the three pieces from a non-flute-playing listener’s perspective. Then the pianist on this recording, David Appleton, gets a chance to be heard without flute in Three Études for Piano. The first, elaborate movement, “Nine Variations,” is interestingly complex, while “Through the Empty Vaulted Night” and “Stars and Dreams” are more conventionally conceived. After this, Coulthard is again heard alone in Three Pieces for Solo Flute, which feel like études exploring the instrument’s full range and seeking (and occasionally finding) ways to make it sound somewhat un-flute-like. The second piece’s pointillist approach is particularly engaging. After this comes Sea Echoes (for glissando flute), which is interesting mainly for the chance to hear the effect of this instrumental modification, which makes a downward glissando possible from every note. The disc concludes with Boireann for flute and piano, in which Coulthard and Appleton mostly sound as if they are playing disparate works at the same time – the piece certainly has a contemporary sound to it, but at nearly 11 minutes, it overstays its welcome by a fair amount.

     The flute gets a more-intriguing accompanying instrument – but a much stranger program – on a new (+++) AVIE disc pairing Sally Walker with harpist Emily Granger. There are 10 pieces on this 57-minute CD, which means nothing is particularly extensive; but nothing is particularly cohesive, either, with works of all types and time periods thrown together willy-nilly, and with pieces written for flute and harp mixed indiscriminately with ones that Granger has arranged for this combination. Make no mistake: the duo’s sound here is pretty and is the primary interest of the recording. But the music itself takes a back seat to its aural presentation, not least because of the strange order in which everything is presented. The disc opens with Ode by Lachlan Skipworth (born 1982), a pleasantly evocative four-minute scene-setter that sounds a bit like movie music. Next is Granger’s arrangement of the Andantino from Mozart’s flute-and-harp concerto, a wonderful work that perhaps Walker and Granger will offer in its original form sometime – here, the single movement extracted and arranged from the concerto takes on what is almost a pop-music (or “relaxation music”) sound. Next is Something like this (there are no capital letters in the second and third words), a dreamlike little nocturne by Elena Kats-Chernin (born 1957). Then comes Djagamara, an even quieter and more-evanescent little piece, by Christopher Sainsbury (born 1963). After this is Entr’acte by Jacques Ibert – this is a much bouncier and more-upbeat piece that provides some welcome up-tempo brightness and some of Ibert’s typical skill in miniatures. Then the performers offer Granger’s arrangement of the G minor violin-or-flute-with-harpsichord sonata, BWV 1020, that is traditionally attributed to “old Bach” but is almost certainly by his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. As so often in Bach adaptations, the music transcends the arrangement – whatever the work’s original provenance – and it is pleasant to hear so carefully balanced and elegant a work in the middle of this somewhat disorganized CD. It is odd, then, to have this sonata followed by Three Fragments for Flute and Harp or Piano by Witold Lutosławski. Certainly there is tremendous contrast between the Baroque music and these one-minute miniatures, but the juxtaposition results in a strange feeling of sonic dislocation – intentional, perhaps, but nevertheless somewhat jarring even though the concluding Presto is delightfully bouncy. Next is Sati by Jessica Wells (born 1974), whose evenness of tempo and careful balance of instruments make it a standout on the disc for its pleasant flow and idiomatic handling of both flute and harp. After this come Granger’s transcriptions for solo harp of Gymnopédies Nos. 1 and 3 by Erik Satie, with the inherent delicacy of these works coming through well even though the familiar No. 1 is paced to near-stasis. The CD then concludes with Poems I, II, III for Flute and Harp by Sally Greenaway (born 1984). Not much longer than the Lutosławski fragments, this set of three pieces is gentle, evocative, and thoroughly relaxed, flowing in genuinely poetic mode throughout each of its movements. This work and Wells’ are highlights among the more-recent compositions on the disc; and everything here, from whatever era, receives a first-rate, sensitive, beautifully blended performance. Still, the recording comes across as a rather strange sequence of pieces whose brevity mean they sound as if they are more-or-less encores. The recital is beautiful but uneven, lovely to hear but not musically cohesive enough to merit repeated close attention. Despite individual standout pieces, the totality comes across mostly as a disc of pretty background music.