Chamber Music for Flute (Marianiello, Linda. Flute)

Performances by flutist Linda Marianiello, recorded in Bavaria as part of the Bavarian Radio Recordings. Her recordings celebrate musicians she has worked with and the instrument’s otherwise limited repertory.
Philippe Gaubert (1879-1941) evolved from a flute player in French orchestras to a composer-conductor. Sonata No. 2 (1925) was written for Marcel Moyse, and demonstrates a virtuosic, Romantic style. The spirit of all 3 mvmts remains pastoral and bucolic, with moments of aerial bravura, as in the last movement, Tres vif. The writing for the keyboard is equally demanding, either in quick, staccato notes or startling runs.
Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) blended his Czech temperament classical, Parisian training, often in a neo-Classical style imitative of Stravinsky. In his Madrigal Sonata (1942) he combines his penchant for Baroque forms & his love of Cape Cod bird calls. The unusual instrumentation allows a singing clarity. The 1st mvmt, Poco allegro, changes color and contour. The longer Moderato mvmt opens with the flute against a pizzicato violin and expressive piano. The mood is casual, somewhat ornamental and dissonant. Suddenly, a buzzing effect becomes dominant, the music more agitated, almost percussively pentatonic in sound. Then, a lyrical phase sets in, gently transparent. The last section gains velocity, the sounds colliding in happy harmony.
Raffaelo Galli (1824-2889) converts Donizetti’s arietta from the opera Linda di Chamounix (1842) into a virtuoso Capriccio for Two Flutes. Typical of coloratura arias, Galli has the flutes serve in high, ornamental registers and warble affectionately in the slower episodes. The show-stopper, at the two-minute coda, involves constantly rising scales and sudden leaps, with lines inverted for each player to show versatility.
Carl Mansker (1935-2019) was a gifted, Los Angeles pianist and flutist. Danza e fuga, Op. 33 challenges the virtuoso flutist and pianist, as if both players were improvising. Scalar patterns and leaps permeate the Danza, often in close imitation. Each player has a brief solo. The Fuga, pointillistic in texture, is eerie, almost an elevated march ending in a flurry of notes. His Five Chinese Poems, Op. 13 reflecting a love of Mahler, reflect sad poems of love and nature. Pentatonic scales in slow mvmt accompany the soprano, who intones in a speech-song manner from Schoenberg. Low bass chords and high flute and piano tessitura mark The Jealous Woman in her brief agony. Even more pained, The Forsaken Woman has a texture like Ligeti’s music for the film Eyes Wide Shut. The two last songs, The Grass at XinShe Castle and The Fan in Autumn, attempt to find solace in a harsh emotional environment.
Improvisation for Flute and Indian Percussion derives from J.S. Bach’s Sarabande from Partita for Solo Flute, BWV 1013. The piece, in A Minor, casts a melancholy lyricism, underlined by the Baroque flute’s counterpoint with rhythmic Indian instruments, mridangam and ghatam.