It is difficult to think of a more agreeable sound than that of flute and guitar; or so it seems immediately after listening to this record. Of course, the basic sound also needs quality in its execution: that it most certainly has, in high degree, on this occasion, the Galway vibrato seeming altogether less obtrusive when accompanied by guitar only.
The programme is splendidly chosen; although looking mostly like major works calling for serious listening, those major works, when considered by movements, separate into the lightest of summer-evening-on-the-river trifles. One major work is more familiar than I thought from its title it was, and perhaps than you think it is: in the Cimarosa Serenade the editing and arranging team of Galway and Yamashita have by coincidence chosen exactly the same movements, in the same order, as Arthur Benjamin chose in arranging from the same source (Cimarosa's keyboard sonatas) for the Cimarosa/Benjamin Oboe Concerto. The lay-out is of course different; and the element of familiarity involved may lend an extra pleasure on a first hearing. Pleasure, here, is also helped along by a first-class quality of recording, whether in the LP or CD version.'