Sharon Bezaly, Nobuko Imai, Ronald Brautigam - Chamber Music for Flute, Viola and Piano (2003)

Sharon Bezaly / Nobuko Imai / Ronald Brautigam – leading names on their respective instruments (flute, viola and piano). One great advantage of the recording medium is that it brings together musicians who would normally be too busy to sit down and play chamber music together. Here we have a disc featuring three remarkable musicians who have pooled their resources in the performance of some highly original repertoire. Not surprisingly where the flute is concerned, much of the music originated in France. Yet here it is not a matter of nineteenth century repertoire – of which there is an almost endless quantity featuring the flute – but of works written (with one exception) during the twentieth century. The programme starts with a trio by Maurice Duruflé; a rare work indeed, since this is the only piece of chamber music that the ever self-critical Duruflé chose to publish. Of the other composers, Reynaldo Hahn is one of those people whose name is more frequently heard than his music. That this is unjust is amply proven by the works presented here: a trio, two pieces for flute and piano, as well as a solo piano suite of “Portraits of Painters” based on poems by Hahn’s friend Marcel Proust. Moving eastwards, Mieczyslaw Weinberg is a real "find" – a Polish composer who was forced to flee from the Nazis and who came under the wing of Shostakovich who spoke most warmly of his powers as a composer. The final work is from a highly unexpected source: the great pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva. Famed for her definitive performances of the piano music of Bach and Shostakovich her career as a composer is much less known outside her native country. In fact she left a substantial oeuvre including symphonies, concertos etc. A unique programme performed with the utmost panache by some of the finest musicians on the planet!