Great Works for FLUTE and ORCHESTRA

“What is great about this disc is the startling playing of Sharon Bezaly. It is not that she grandstands in any way, she is just a phenomenally gifted flautist...The [Nielsen] has never been better recorded technically: that at least is certain.” --MusicWeb International, 16th October 2013

“[the Nielsen] merits the supreme artistry that Shraon Bezaly brings to it, both in terms of deft, discerningly harnessed virtuosity and in her supple, sinuous shaping of the music. Neeme Jarvi and the Residentie Orkest Den Haag astutely etch in the lively, spicy instrumental context” --Gramophone Magazine, November 2013

One of today’s most highly respected exponents of her instrument, Sharon Bezaly is a staunch champion of contemporary music, with 17 concertos and numerous chamber works dedicated to her. But she has also made acclaimed recordings of flute repertoire mainstays, from Mozart’s concertos and quartets to Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto pastoral.

Her latest disc includes two central works from the repertoire for flute and orchestra – the concertos by Carl Nielsen and Carl Reinecke – as well as less often heard gems, such as Cécile Chaminade's melodious Concertino and Charles T. Griffes’ Poem, with its distinctive harmonies and colourful writing.

The programme also includes a true rarity in Tchaikovsky’s youthful Largo and Allegro for flute and strings, written while the composer was still a student at the St Petersburg Conservatory. The work was originally composed for two flutes and strings, but as the second flute plays for just 17 of the total of 87 bars, either doubling or filling in when the first player is silent, the two parts have here been combined into one.

In contrast, Poulenc's Sonata is of course one of the most popular pieces in the flute repertoire of the 20th century, but it is here performed in an unusual version for flute and orchestra, orchestrated by the British composer Lennox Berkeley, incidentally a friend of Poulenc. Throughout this colourful and varied programme, Sharon Bezaly enjoys the sympathetic support of Neeme Järvi and the Residentie Orchestra who also join her in the spectacular encore, the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho’s virtuosic arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Flight of the Bumblebee.

Cello Sonatas by FRANCK, DEBUSSY & POULENC

“highly articulate, sensitively shaped and technically mellifluous performances from two outstanding musicians, which on this occasion only catch fire intermittently.” --Classic FM Magazine, March 2012 ***

“[Gastinel] and Claire Desert have a wonderfully intuitive partnership and both draw on subtle, inimitable soundworlds....Gastinel brings the right note of nonchalant simplicity to Debussy's Sonata...Where Rostropovich and Britten's landmark recording of this work has panache and bite, this duo, with cat-like tread, bring out an utterly different quality - equally stylish, and quietly impressive.” --BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 *****

“Gastinel and Desert make a very good job of [the Franck] - the playing is natural and unforced. The Debussy Cello Sonata is excellent here, an account that captures the fleeting moods of the work extremely well. This is quite an individual performance, working convincingly towards climaxes...The Poulenc Sonata here is a winner but the whole disc is very impressive.” --International Record Review, January 2012

“one of the notable aspects of the playing is its singing quality, the expressiveness that Gastinel draws from fine nuances of sound all seamlessly knit together in mellifluous lines...In her interpretative stance and application of colour Gastinel is ideally matched by Desert; the recorded balance is judicious and there is a real sense of a performance being created in complete accord.” --Gramophone Magazine, April 2012

PARIS

This disc was Gramophone's "Recording of the Month" for March 1998.

Brilliant, charming & versatile: When Emmanuel Pahud became the youngest member of the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of just 22, he was at the beginning of an unprecedented career. His technical brilliance and the exceptional musical versatility with which Pahud adapts "to the colours of the music or teh composer's ideas like a chameleon" have made the charismatic musician one of the most successful flautists of our time.

POULENC The Complete Chamber Music

"An altogether first-class collection of Poulenc's very individual chamber music output played with real sensitivity … .outstanding performances. The whole issue wins my enthusiastic recommendation: it bids fair to become the undisputed yardstick for the future." --Gramophone

"A set which will surely and deservedly be popular." --BBC Music Magazine

"It would be hard to imagine more consistently on-target presentations of Poulenc’s chamber music or more appropriate sound reproduction. Highly recommended" --Fanfare, USA

This collection of the complete chamber music of Poulenc shows the varying styles that he employed. From the jazzy, bitonal passages of the Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon and the Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone which has been described as 'Pergolesi with his wig awry' (Roger Nichols, Grove) to the profound beauty of his last three sonatas for wind. All are extremely accessible.

The Nash Ensemble gave a series of concerts of Poulenc's music at the Wigmore Hall earlier this year to great critical acclaim and Hyperion are delighted to be able to present this wonderful collection on this, Poulenc's centenary year.

“Invidious as it may seem to pick out just one of these excellent artists, special mention must be made of Ian Brown, who plays in nine of the 13 works included and confirms his standing as one of the most admired and musicianly chamber pianists of our day. He knows, for example, how to control Poulenc's boisterous piano writing in the Sextet without sacrificing the sparkle, and as a result the work coheres better than ever before. Like the Trio (whose opening reveals Stravinskian influence), it's a mixture of the composer's madcap gamin mood and his predominantly melancholy bittersweet lyricism.

The latter characteristic is most in evidence in his most enduring chamber works: the solo wind sonatas with piano, all three of which were in the nature of tombeaux , the Flute Sonata for the American patron Mrs Sprague Coolidge, that for clarinet for Honegger, and that for oboe for Prokofiev. All are given idiomatic, sensitive and satisfying performances by the Nash artists.

The Elégie for Dennis Brain was a not altogether convincing experiment in dodecaphony: Poulenc had earlier dabbled in atonality and polytonality in the little sonatas (really sonatinas) for, respectively, two clarinets and for clarinet and bassoon. There's a touching reading of the little Sarabande for guitar. A hint of the guitar's tuning at the start of the second move- ment is almost the only Spanish reference in the Violin Sonata, which was composed in memoriam the poet Lorca, whose loss is bitterly suggested in the angry finale. In this work Poulenc allotted to the piano (his own instrument) rather more than equal status in the duo – a situation rather paralleled in the lighthearted Cello Sonata, over which the composer dallied longer than any other of his works – but balance in both is finely judged by the performers and the recording team.

The whole issue wins enthusiastic recommendation: it bids fair to become the undisputed yardstick for the future.” --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010