BaL 14.11.15 - Poulenc: Flute Sonata

[Rolmill]

The acoustic was criticized for being too resonant when the recording came out, so perhaps it won't be in the running, but the performance seems very fine to me as well.

To me also - Gallois makes a lovely sound, but I agree that not all of the detail survives contact with the rather reverberant acoustic.

I also have Jennifer Stinton's CD (with Scott Mitchell), but again the recording lets it down, giving the piano a rather boomy sound to my ears.

My favourite recording isn't on EA's list: Emmanuel Pahud and Eric Le Sage on a CD entitled 'Paris', beautifully graceful, refined and nimble playing, a well-balanced partnership between flute and piano, and a nice clear (but not dry) recording.

[LeMartinPecheur]

0930 Building a Library
David Owen Norris compares recordings of Poulenc's ever-green Flute Sonata of 1957 which has become a staple of the flautist's repertoire.

EA, that's wrong: it's about the only worthwhile piece

[verismissimo]

This could well be a DON special...

[visualnickmos]

For the first time I've found one that's 'not on the list!'

Paula Robison flute, Charles Wadsworth piano

from an ASV double CD set 'Complete music for wind instruments & piano' - the only version I have of this piece....... yet!

[Dave2002]

EA, that's wrong: it's about the only worthwhile piece

Hindemith Sonata
Debussy Syrinx
Martinu Sonata
Honegger Danse de la chèvre
Berkely Sonatina

I trust you were being provocative!

[Dave2002]

Didn't notice Katherine Bryan's version on the list - nor mentioned in the programme. Maybe I missed something. Linn Records.

[Lento]

Laughed out loud when Owen-Norris stated "it would be tedious to point out all the structural intricacies, so I won't". Be thankful for small mercies! I do wish he could stop lecturing us and stick properly to his brief.

[DracoM]

Tiny point - a trail mid-programme had the words 'a pop-up service' for BBC Jazz.
What - FGS - is a 'pop-up service'?

[Andrew Slater]

Tiny point - a trail mid-programme had the words 'a pop-up service' for BBC Jazz.
What - FGS - is a 'pop-up service'?

Presumably similar to a 'pop-up shop': one day it pops up and then disappears. It's on DAB. I've just checked - it's running trails at 64kbps mono, and amazingly has 'borrowed' the bits from R1, R2 and R4 which are down to 112kbps. R3 is trundling on at 192kbps When running real programmes it might 'borrow' some bits from R3

[verismissimo]

Hindemith Sonata
Debussy Syrinx
Martinu Sonata
Honegger Danse de la chèvre
Berkely Sonatina

I trust you were being provocative!

Add Prokofiev to your brief list, Dave.

[HighlandDougie]

Given events in Paris, albeit several hundreds of miles away from this quiet little corner of France, I found it hard to concentrate on this BaL. Not their fault but the combination of a tootling flute, Poulenc and the uningratiating style of DON all seemed wholly inappropriate and rather jarring.

[ardcarp]

Luckily I was able to 'escape' from the Parisian tragedy and become thoroughly absorbed in DON's excellent survey of Poulenc's amazing sonata, a piece I know well (having struggled to play the piano part on occasions). I suppose DON is a bit of a Marmite figure, and clearly some posters find his style irritating. I don't. In fact I always enjoy his reviews, and if you look back on today's, you will surely find that he managed to play a great deal (unlike the Berg Violin Concerto review a couple of weeks ago), to make quick and pertinent comments in between the extracts, and to run a fornsic and technically expert eye over what the performers were doing. Possibly he, being a pianist, focused on the piano part more than the flute, but then it is a sonata for flute and piano so the flute should not be primus inter pares. I was struck by the wide differences in the recorded sound of the flute...different in almost every extract. (I guess it didn't help that the first part of the review was in mono due to 'a technical problem'.) I did like Emily Beynon's playing very much, though was happy with DON's final choice.

[Don Petter]

Luckily I was able to 'escape' from the Parisian tragedy and become thoroughly absorbed in DON's excellent survey of Poulenc's amazing sonata, a piece I know well (having struggled to play the piano part on occasions). I suppose DON is a bit of a Marmite figure, and clearly some posters find his style irritating. I don't. In fact I always enjoy his reviews, and if you look back on today's, you will surely find that he managed to play a great deal (unlike the Berg Violin Concerto review a couple of weeks ago), to make quick and pertinent comments in between the extracts, and to run a fornsic and technically expert eye over what the performers were doing. Possibly he, being a pianist, focused on the piano part more than the flute, but then it is a sonata for flute and piano so the flute should not be primus inter pares. I was struck by the wide differences in the recorded sound of the flute...different in almost every extract. (I guess it didn't help that the first part of the review was in mono due to 'a technical problem'.) I did like Emily Beynon's playing very much, though was happy with DON's final choice.

Agree with this in every aspect!

[LeMartinPecheur]

Hindemith Sonata
Debussy Syrinx
Martinu Sonata
Honegger Danse de la chèvre
Berkely Sonatina

I trust you were being provocative!

Only a tiny bit But I'm pleased not to be confronted with a 7-sides-of-A4 reply. Verismissimo beat me to it with Prokofiev but my own shelves are not hugely burdened with solo flute. The LP (Susan Milan/ Clifford Benson) that provided my own Poulenc sonata c1980 contains, apart from Syrinx, Roussel Joueurs de Flute, Ibert Piece pour flute seul, Messiaen La merle noir, Faure Fantasie, and Bozza Agrestide. I won't propose M. Bozza as essential repertoire but the two underlined will almost certainly have their supporters.

[HighlandDougie]

and to run a fornsic and technically expert eye over what the performers were doing.

Too much trees and not enough wood, imv. But Ardcarp is right: DON is a Marmite figure. Cleverness for its own sake combined with a seemingly irreppressible urge to show off were never a happy combination. I should know not to listen by now.