Flute Concertos - Bridge across the Pyrenees

Please note: The music on this Hybrid Super Audio CD can be played back in Stereo (CD and SACD) as well as in 5.0 Surround sound (SACD).

"There is absolutely nothing here to criticize. Sharon Bezaly is one of the world's top flutists; the repertoire has been chosen with her usual intelligence and imagination; she plays the living daylights out of all of three pieces; the accompaniments are simply marvelous; balances are perfect; the engineering is state-of-the-art stunning."
10 [sound] 10 [performance] ClassicsToday

Separated by the Pyrenees, the musical milieus of Spain and France have sometimes been like oil and water - or maybe like oil and wine. It took Bizet's opera Carmen to open the ears of the French to the Spanish rhythms and inflections which were to become so important to so many later composers, from Debussy to Ibert. On the present disc, Carmen - in the guise of Borne's Fantaisie brillante - plays a similar role, creating a bridge between Rodrigo's Concierto pastoral and Ibert's Flute Concerto, two of last century's main concertante works for the flute. Soloist Sharon Bezaly will hardly need a closer presentation after her highly praised recordings of the past couple of years. Her recital with pianist Ronald Brautigam (BIS-SACD-1429) and her recording of Mozart's concertos (BIS-SACD-153901), to mention only two, have garnered such high praise and so many distinctions that it would be impossible to list them - suffice it to say that the reviewers have called her 'a sorceress of timbres', 'God's gift to the flute', 'a First Lady among equals' and a 'graceful Mozartean, with limpid tone, an impish sense of humour, and sometimes staggering breath control.' The present recording was made with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Neschling, whose performances of the music of Brazilian composers Guarnieri, Mignone, Braga and Santoro have been praised for their vitality, rhythmic vigour and wide range of colours - all qualities that should be just the thing for building a bridge across the Pyrenees.