Richard Sherman - American Landscape / Music for Flute - Classical - CD

This selection is also available on Walking Frog (distribution) 636.

One of the best things about this disc is that it brings to light a lot of music you may not know, not least of which is the very substantial Flute Sonata of Amy Marcy Cheney Beach. Once rather quaintly known as Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, she was a member of the so-called New England School of composers who wrote in a cultivated romantic style and figured prominently in American music toward the end of the 19th century. Aaron Copland's Flute Sonata is actually the Violin Sonata of 1943, here appropriated for the flute, as it requires no key change. It is of 'Appalachian Spring' vintage, and with its clear, open spacings has many of the same virtues, freshness, vigor, simplicity of expression, and economy of ideas, which is to say it is classic Copland. James Willey's Duo is also well worth knowing, an energetic set of variations worked out with originality and a diversity of ideas. The performances by flutist Richard Sherman and pianist Ralph Votapek are sensitive and alert, and neatly captured in a small hall acoustic.