Brandon Patrick George (flute), Steven Beck (piano), Jacob Greenberg (piano)
Profil Medien · PH18039 · 66 minutes
Brandon Patrick George opens his recording debut with a program that genuinely earns a second look — pairing Bach’s contrapuntal clarity with Boulez’s spiky modernism and Kalevi Aho’s solo writing makes for a genuinely adventurous 66 minutes. His tone is lovely and transparent throughout, and you can hear a real musical intelligence at work even if the phrasing occasionally floats a little loose of its moorings. It’s the kind of debut that shows you exactly where an artist is headed, which is often more interesting than a polished but predictable statement.
“The young American flautist makes his solo recording debut with a nuanced programme. His sound is developed and clear, but would benefit from more focused phrasing.”
— BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2020,3 out of 5 stars
Jiří Válek (soloist), Josef Hála (soloist)
Supraphon · E32 · 68 minutes
Poulenc’s flute sonata is one of those pieces that sounds effortless and breezy on the surface but actually demands real tonal warmth and a razor-sharp sense of wit — and Jiří Válek brings exactly that, keeping the music light without ever letting it slip into mere charm. What makes this disc such a satisfying listen is the programming itself: pairing Poulenc with Hindemith, Prokofiev, and Martinů gives you four very different mid-20th-century voices, all writing for the same instrument but with completely contrasting ideas about what a flute sonata should feel like. Josef Hála holds his own throughout, and the two players clearly relish the shifts in mood from one composer to the next.
Paul Meisen, Gabriel Rosenberg
MDG · MDG30202552 · 72 minutes
Reger’s Flute Sonata is one of those pieces that lives in a strange, gorgeous twilight — harmonically restless in the way only Reger can be, never quite settling where you expect it to. Meisen and Rosenberg navigate that chromatic density with real intelligence, letting the music breathe instead of pushing through it. The pairing with Prokofiev’s D major Sonata is inspired, because suddenly you hear how much wit and angularity the twentieth century brought to the flute, and the Reinecke rounds things out with a romantic warmth that feels genuinely earned by the end of the program.
Seiya Ueno (flute), Kana Okada (piano)
Laplace Records · LPDCD108G · 75 minutes
Prokofiev’s flute sonata is one of those pieces that can feel brittle and sarcastic in the wrong hands, but when a flutist really leans into its lopsided charm — those spiky rhythms in the first movement, the mock-tender slow music — it becomes something genuinely strange and wonderful. Seiya Ueno pairs it here with Franck’s ravishing but tricky sonata (yes, the one usually played by violinists) and a Reinecke sonata that deserves way more attention than it gets, making this a program with real personality rather than just a grab-bag of flute hits. Ueno and Okada play like musicians who have thought hard about what each of these pieces actually is, and that kind of care shows up in every phrase.
Pablo Barragán (clarinet), Sophie Pacini (piano)
Aparté · AP287 · 67 minutes
There’s something quietly thrilling about a program that puts Poulenc and Weinberg in the same room — composers who both lived through enormous historical pressure and somehow funneled it into music of startling intimacy. Pablo Barragán’s clarinet tone has this burnished, almost vocal quality that suits all four composers beautifully, and Sophie Pacini matches him phrase for phrase rather than just providing harmonic furniture. The Weinberg in particular feels like a revelation here, full of that bittersweet eastern European ache that makes you wonder why we don’t hear it on every stage.
Awards:
- International Classical Music Awards — 2023 — Nominated – Chamber Music
James Galway (flute), Martha Argerich (piano)
RCA · G0100032436429 · 49 minutes
Pairing Prokofiev and Franck on the same disc feels almost mischievous — one composer is all angular wit and sly momentum, the other is soaked in late-Romantic longing — yet somehow the contrast makes total sense when you’re actually listening. Galway’s tone has this warm, liquid quality that softens Prokofiev’s edges just enough without losing the music’s cheekiness, and then pours beautifully into Franck’s long, aching melodic lines. Argerich is, as ever, an equal partner rather than an accompanist, and you can hear her relishing every moment where the piano gets to push back.
Denis Lupachev (flute), Peter Laul (piano)
Naxos · 8579069 · 55 minutes
Edison Denisov’s flute sonata alone is reason enough to seek this disc out — it’s a piece that moves between glassy fragility and real emotional weight, and Lupachev navigates those shifts with a naturalness that feels completely unforced. Laul is a genuinely responsive partner at the piano, never just accompanying but actively shaping the conversation. The Prokofiev and Hindemith round things out with their very different flavors of 20th-century wit and lyricism, making the whole program feel like a proper journey rather than a grab-bag.
Ariane Brisson (soloist), Philip Chiu (soloist)
Atma Classique · ACD2 2884 · 54 minutes
Prokofiev never actually wrote a flute sonata — what we have is his Sonata for violin and piano in F major, Op. 94, which he immediately rearranged for flute at the request of flautist Khachaturian, and the result feels so natural in that higher register that it’s almost hard to believe it wasn’t the original plan. Ariane Brisson and Philip Chiu lean into that airy, mercurial quality Prokofiev loved, where lyrical lines can turn sardonic on a dime, and their ensemble playing sounds genuinely conversational rather than soloist-plus-accompanist. At just under an hour it’s a focused, pleasurable listen that captures exactly why this music has such a devoted following among wind players.
