Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 4891030507418
Genres: Classical  
Composer/Series: Flute and Harp
Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 4891030507418
Genres: Classical  
Composer/Series: Flute and Harp
Description
Romantic Music for Flute and HarpThe combination of flute and harp is one that is peculiarlysatisfying, the one instrument a foil to the other. The eleven transcriptions recordedstart with the Intermezzo from Bizet's Spanish opera Carmen, a realistic drama of love,jealousy and murder, set in Seville. The Intermezzo that serves as an entr'acte before ActIII sets the scene as the gypsy smugglers climb to their stronghold in the mountains,ready for a new enterprise, joined by Carmen and the soldier, Don Jose, whom she hasseduced. The Minuet (4) is a transcription drawn from Bizet's score for the melodrama L'Arlesienne, a collaboration with the writerAlphonse Daudet, but now better known as part of a suite drawn from the original work. The Meditation fromMassenet's opera Thais enjoys the greatest popularity. The opera, first staged in Paris in1894, is based on a novel by Anatole France and centres on the courtesan turned saint ofthe title. The Meditation, an Intermezzo in the second act of the opera, depicts inmusical terms the conversion of the worldly Tha?»s and later is recalled as she parts forever from Athana?½l, the monk instrumental in her conversion, but tormented by her beauty.Auguste Durand, whose name is well known as the founder of adistinguished French firm of music publishers, was a fellow-student of Cesar Franck andSaint- Sa?½ns, and later the publisher of their works. The Waltz in E flat major, Opus 83, is an originalcomposition for harp. His Chaconne (7) isalso an original work for the same instrument. The music of Debussy often lends itself particularly well toflute and harp transcription, since both instruments have an important part to play in hisorchestral scores, and have a special and evocative place in his chamber music in aremarkable sonata for flute, viola and harp. En bateau is the first movement of Debussy'sPetite Suite for piano duet, completed and published in 1889. The name of Maurice Ravel is often coupled with that ofDebussy, an implied comparison that was pleasing to neither. With a mother from the Basqueregion and a Paris home background that had in it a Spanish element, he was well able tocapture the spirit of Spain in music crafted with the meticulous precision that heinherited from his Swiss father. The Vocalise-etude enforme de habanera was written in 1907. In the period that immediately preceded that of Mozart, Gluckoccupied a position of pre-eminence in opera, both in Vienna and in Paris, associated, ashe was, with a reform in the genre, allowing a more realistic balance between music anddrama. The reform began in 1762 with his opera Orfeo edEuridice, in 1774 adapted for Paris in a French version. The plot concerns theattempt by the legendary musician of the ancient world, Orpheus, to bring back from theUnderworld his beloved Euridice. The Dance of theBlessed Spirits is well known as a work for solo flute. It is, in fact, a partonly of a more extended ballet that comes in the second act of the French version o
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden