Revelations: Music For Flute & Piano

Se o repertório para piano e flauta é bastante difundido, isso não significa que não existam obras que, pouco executadas, são capazes de revelar todo um mundo de combinações entre os dois instrumentos. Isso fica bastante evidente no disco da flautista russa Anna Wierer e da pianista ucraniana Alina Pronina, ambas hoje moradoras de Berlim. É difícil saber por onde começar. Talvez pelo clima oriental da Sonata de Mel Bonis, nome que precisa urgentemente ser resgatado devido à qualidade de sua música de câmara; pela releitura do universo sonoro do romantismo feita por Pierre Camus em Chanson e Badinerie; ou então pelo caráter impressionista de D’un matin de printemps, de Lili Boulanger. Mas o que fascina no álbum é também sua abertura para outras linguagens e estéticas, como em Chant de Linos, de André Jolivet, que foi aluno de Edgar Varèse, e na escolha de uma jovem compositora francesa de 22 anos, Élise Bertrand, de quem o duo interpreta Impressions liturgiques, que tem como ponto de partida o Réquiem de Maurice Duruflé. Uma viagem pelo tempo guiada por sonoridades fascinantes, recriadas com intensidade por Wierer e Pronina.

- An original and attractive program of seldom heard works for flute and piano by 20-th century French composers.

- Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) was the first woman to win the coveted Grand Prix de Rome in the competition's 110-year history in 1913. Her work D'un matin de printemps, completed shortly before her death at the age of 24, exudes youthful freshness and joie de vivre through pulsating rhythms and impressionistic dissonances.

- Pierre Camus (1885-1948) was a composer, conductor and pedagogue who studied with Gabriel Fauré. Chanson et Badinerie are two contrasting miniatures characteristic of late French Romanticism; the first melancholic and songful, the second lively and of sweeping lightness.

- Mélanie Bonis (1858-1937) was a student of César Franck and in the same class with Claude Debussy at the Paris Conservatoire. The substantial Flute Sonata is marked by daring modulations, rich harmonies, and modal to oriental-inspired melodies.

- Élise Bertrand (b.2000) is an up-and-coming French composer as well as concertizing violinist and pianist. Inspired by Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, she composed her Impressions Liturgiques Op.2 for flute and piano at the age of 15, impressive for their tonal transparency and clarity, as well as their complex harmonies, rhythms, and polytonality.

- Pierre Sancan (1916-2008) was born in Mazamet, France, studied at the Paris Conservatoire and became a distinguished pianist, composer, conductor and pedagogue. His Sonatina for Flute and Piano (1946) is a work marked by virtuosity, elegance, and harmonic opulence, enriched with alternating solo cadenzas.

- André Jolivet (1905-1974) was inspired by his teacher Edgard Varèse as well as by Arnold Schoenberg. Along with Olivier Messiaen, he was one of the representatives of the French avant-garde. Chant de Linos (1944), has an extremely complex tonal and rhythmic structure and draws its poetic inspiration from Greek mythology.

- Anna Wierer (flute) was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She was a prize-winner of the International Friedrich-Kuhlau Flute Competition and the International Rimsky-Korsakov Competition in St. Petersburg. Anna gained further experience in master classes by Aurèle Nicolet. Alina Pronina (piano) was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and received her first piano lessons at the age of five. From 1997 to 2000 she studied at the R. Gliere Conservatory in Kiev and attended master classes with Dina Joffe, Norma Fischer, Bernd Goetzke and Lazar Berman.