Out of the Cool - Flute and Piano Works
Music for flute and piano that remains a touch too cool
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Robert Saxton, Cecilia McDowall, Arthur Butterworth, Richard Rodney Bennett, Brian Lock, David Heath
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Metier Sound & Vision
Magazine Review Date: 2/2010
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 70
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: MSV28510
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Summer Music |
Richard Rodney Bennett, Composer
Andrew Ball, Piano Richard Rodney Bennett, Composer Susan Milan, Flute |
Winter Music |
Richard Rodney Bennett, Composer
Andrew Ball, Piano Richard Rodney Bennett, Composer Susan Milan, Flute |
Aubade |
Arthur Butterworth, Composer
Andrew Ball, Piano Arthur Butterworth, Composer Susan Milan, Flute |
Krystallen |
Robert Saxton, Composer
Andrew Ball, Piano Robert Saxton, Composer Susan Milan, Flute |
Out of the Cool |
David Heath, Composer
Andrew Ball, Piano David Heath, Composer Susan Milan, Flute |
Sonata for Flute and Piano |
Brian Lock, Composer
Andrew Ball, Piano Brian Lock, Composer Susan Milan, Flute |
(The) Moon Dances |
Cecilia McDowall, Composer
Andrew Ball, Piano Cecilia McDowall, Composer Susan Milan, Flute |
Author: Philip_Clark
Once an associate of Cornelius Cardew and now an unofficial Master of the Queen’s Music in exile, called upon by Prince Charles to write a work in memoriam to the Queen Mother – has there been a stranger career trajectory in British music than Richard Rodney Bennett’s?
Two Bennett compositions, Winter Music (1960) and Summer Music (1983) act as the spine of this recital disc by former RPO principal flautist Susan Milan and British pianist Andrew Ball. Winter Music attempts to reconcile traces of Bennett’s serial past with tonality, winding up with a functional language that satisfies no one. But Bennett is too savvy to be wholly bland – his aspirations to write “tunes” are reflected in overt melodic contours that ought, the textbooks say, to be catchy but, in actuality, are too generic to be memorable. That doesn’t leave much for Milan and Ball to do except play the notes and keep out the way. Summer Music is more of the same.
As for the balance, Arthur Butterworth’s Aubade (1973) is a lacklustre idyll to the English countryside, Cecilia McDowall’s The Moon Dances (2003) fails to bottle the kinky passions of Lorca’s poetry in her tribute, while David Heath’s Out of the Cool (1986) freeloads its title from Gil Evans’s visionary 1960 album but reduces the lingua franca of jazz to a catalogue of licks. Thank goodness for Robert Saxton’s Krystallen (1973), which breathes exploratory air into an otherwise painfully low-key record.
Explore the world’s largest classical music catalogue on Apple Music Classical.
Included with an Apple Music subscription. Download now.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Events & Offers
From £9.20 / month
SubscribeGramophone Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Events & Offers
From £11.45 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.