Flauto con forza
Stylish playing even if the music could do with more arresting ideas
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Arne Mellnäs, Per Mårtensson, André Chini
Label: Phono Suecia
Magazine Review Date: 7/2008
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: PSCD173

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Rendez-vous II |
Arne Mellnäs, Composer
Anders Jonhäll, Flute Arne Mellnäs, Composer Pierre-André Valade, Conductor |
Intimate Games |
Arne Mellnäs, Composer
Anders Jonhäll, Flute Arne Mellnäs, Composer Pierre-André Valade, Conductor |
Dance and Sentimental Song |
Per Mårtensson, Composer
Anders Jonhäll, Flute Per Mårtensson, Composer Pierre-André Valade, Conductor |
Concerto for Flute & Orchestra |
Arne Mellnäs, Composer
Anders Jonhäll, Flute Arne Mellnäs, Composer Pierre-André Valade, Conductor |
Icaregag |
André Chini, Composer
Anders Jonhäll, Flute André Chini, Composer |
Silent Notes for Madrid |
André Chini, Composer
Anders Jonhäll, Flute André Chini, Composer |
Author: Arnold Whittall
The senior figure is Arne Mellnäs (1933-2002), whose Rendez-vous II for flute and percussion and Intimate Games for flute and chamber orchestra show a keen awareness of stylistic possibilities as, around 1980, composers came to terms with the initiatives of Ligeti and Lutosùawski. But lively rhythms, intricate counterpoint and pleasingly ambivalent harmony don’t always compensate for a lack of arresting ideas, and despite some attractive sonic interplay Mellnäs seems prone to allow forms to lapse into episodic inconsequence.
André Chini (b1945) and Per Mårtensson (b1967) represent quite different generations, the former much less in thrall to the IRCAM-promoted possibilities of computer-driven technologies than the latter. Chini shows admirable social and political awareness, as in his Silent Notes for Madrid, a meditation on the horrors of the 2004 train bombings. Icaregag (the title presumably a conflation of the image of the plunging Icarus with the name of the performance group) is an even more earnest affair, taking too long to find the rhythmic energy and harmonic focus evident in the last few minutes.
Where Chini is earnest, Mårtennson is if anything too laid-back, both in his ultra-improvisatory Dance and Sentimental Song and in the more purposeful and sustained processes of his 2001 Concerto. However, this improves as it goes along, the short finale offering a genuinely imaginative and touching complement to the earlier busy-ness.
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