Debussy · Ravel · Prokofiev

Debussy · Ravel · Prokofiev

• PAHUD / KOVACEVICH / KARNEUS /
• MUSICA CLASICA
• INTERNATIONAL
• MUSIC

Acclaimed young flautist Emmanuel Pahud presents a program that contrasts two 20th-century French masters, Debussy and Ravel, with one Russian, Prokofiev. Debussy's <I>Syrinx</I> and <I>La plus que lent</I> are short, beguiling pieces, the first a languorous flute solo akin to <I>Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune</I>, the second a dreamy piano waltz. <I>Les Chansons de Bilitis</I> is a delicately sensuous and mysterious six-part suite for piano and flute. The three <I>Chansons Madécasses</I> are Ravel's rarefied settings of folksongs from Madagascar; Katarina Karnéus sings with a beautiful disquiet, exploding into a tormented fury in "Aoua! Aoua!" What initially seems an unusual choice for a finale proves most apt, for it would be easy to mistake Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2 for further French sophistication. Light, eloquent, and playfully melodic, the deft interplay of Pahud's flute and Stephen Kovacevich's piano is far removed from the conventional associations of Russian music. <I>--Gary S Dalkin</I>