Flute and piano recital

Press, 23 October 1989, Page 6

Flute and piano recital

Geoffrey Collins (flute) and lola Shelley (piano), at the Great Hall, October 21, at 8 p.m. Reviewed by Paul Goodson. The visiting Australian, Geoffrey Collins, is a most assured performer, with fine breath control and a lovely flow of tone, especially in the upper register which had considerable brilliance.

He can spin a long, seamless phrase — as in the “Cantilena” from Poulenc’s Sonata — and cope admirably with the energetic, off-beat rhythms of the finale from Copland’s “duo.” His chosen programme provided some insight into aspects of contemporary flute repertoire. Of the six featured works, five were post 1950; only the opening Mozart sonata (which is, in any case, a violin piece) looked back to eighteenth-century forms.

The real interest lay in the programme’s second half. The fast pace adopted for the first movement — and to a lesser

extent the third — of. Poulenc’s superb sonata, robbed the music of the expansiveness and poignancy which underscore the work’s elegance and forthright melodicism.

Copland’s “Duo” shows the composer re-exploring basing musical components, principally triadic progressions. This isn’t profound music, but the semiimprovisatory opening movement, and bustling, somewhat piecemeal last, are especially effective in performance. Peter Sculthorpe’s “Songs of Sea and Sky” reflects his interest in the indigenous music of East Asia. This piece packed a great deal into its six-part whole. I liked the contrast between the measured Saibai section, the various permutations of an insistent three-note motif, and the hymn-like sequence first intoned by the piano with perky flute interjections. Rhythm is a driving force throughout, and the writing, both for piano and flute is animated —

almost obsessive — and colourful, and retains a primitive drive without that undigested abrasiveness which cross-cultural forays too often display. Damase’s “Senate en Concert” is a type of poor man’s Poulenc: witty and extremely accessible, but with as much substance as a half-empty glass of flat Marque Vue. Chloe Moon’s “Dance,” with its impressionistic opening and codetta, is a delightful miniature.

Mozart’s B flat sonata, for all Collins’ shapely phrasing and articulate melodicism in the Andantino, doesn’t really come off. There is too much going on in the piano part, and extended sections of low-lying violin writing make heavy weather for the flute.

Apart from a slightly hardtoned Mozart, lola Shelley’s accompaniments were among the most assured and supportive I have heard in an instrumental recital this year.