Reviews: Flute Collection

Daquin: Le Coucou; Arr. Hotteterre Le Romain: Air de Mr. De Luly [sic]; Quantz: Sonata in D; Duphly: La De Drummond; Devienne: Sonata in E Minor; Tulou: Fantaisie Brillant Sur "Le Fee Aux Roses (De Halevy)"; Nicholson: Home Sweet Home; Schumbert, Arr. Boehm: Gute Nacht. Stephen Preston, Flutes; Lucy Carolan, Keyboards.

For this ... collection, Stephen Preston plays music from [the] 17th-19th [centuries], beginning with a French instrument in ivory, dating from the 18th century, and ending with a Godfroy (with Boehm system) from the 19th. The music is--well, calculated to display virtuosity and the characteristics of the instruments, I should say, rather than musical content. Nevertheless, with Preston's superb playing one can listen with pleasure to the making of music. Miss Carolan accompanies on a variety of instruments from the Finchcocks Collection, which adds to the enjoyment, each having been selected to correspond in period with the flutes.

The recording explores each instrument with love, so as to bring out the differences within the general "flute" sound. It does so admirably, as one has come to expect from this label. One can indeed say that all of the "collection" series can serve as part of a select number of demonstration-test recordings for evaluating a system. One could say as much of very few other labels, I fancy.

Daquin: Le Coucou; Arr. Hotteterre Le Romain: Air de Mr. De Luly [sic]; Quantz: Sonata in D; Duphly: La De Drummond; Devienne: Sonata in E Minor; Tulou: Fantaisie Brillant Sur "Le Fee Aux Roses (De Halevy)"; Nicholson: Home Sweet Home; Schumbert, Arr. Boehm: Gute Nacht. Stephen Preston, Flutes; Lucy Carolan, Keyboards.

For this ... collection, Stephen Preston plays music from [the] 17th-19th [centuries], beginning with a French instrument in ivory, dating from the 18th century, and ending with a Godfroy (with Boehm system) from the 19th. The music is--well, calculated to display virtuosity and the characteristics of the instruments, I should say, rather than musical content. Nevertheless, with Preston's superb playing one can listen with pleasure to the making of music. Miss Carolan accompanies on a variety of instruments from the Finchcocks Collection, which adds to the enjoyment, each having been selected to correspond in period with the flutes.

The recording explores each instrument with love, so as to bring out the differences within the general "flute" sound. It does so admirably, as one has come to expect from this label. One can indeed say that all of the "collection" series can serve as part of a select number of demonstration-test recordings for evaluating a system. One could say as much of very few other labels, I fancy.