Rouse: Flute Concerto; Ibert: Flute Concerto; Frank Martin: Ballade

Flute Concertos by Christopher Rouse & Jacques Ibert
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Artist: Katherine Bryan, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Jac van Steen, Christopher Rouse, Jacques Ibert, Claude Debussy, Frank Martin
Genre: Classical
Label: Linn Records

American composer Christopher Rouse's five-movement Flute Concerto takes inspiration in its outer movements, both titled Amhrán, from Enya. The second and fourth movements are both busy (one a march, the other a scherzo), and the central movement is an elegy, affected by the murder of Liverpool toddler Jamie Bulger, when the piece was being written in 1993. It's all a bit self-consciously accessible, rather lighter in fact than Ibert's light, neo-classical Flute Concerto of 1933. Swiss composer Frank Martin's 1939 Ballade plays for less than 10 minutes, but seems to have more to say than either concerto. The capable Katherine Bryan also includes Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute as a fill-up. url.ie/55bm

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor