This little program of transcriptions for flute and harp could have been played a half-century ago in an old-money living room or an afternoon-tea musicale at a social club. It's beautifully done, and, taken for what it is, it's delightful. The program is centered on exactly the composer who would have been the repertoire center of any player of light music in those days: Felix Mendelssohn, specifically, the various Songs Without Words. Separated into two groups, these are augmented by transcribed opera arias, songs, and a ...
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This little program of transcriptions for flute and harp could have been played a half-century ago in an old-money living room or an afternoon-tea musicale at a social club. It's beautifully done, and, taken for what it is, it's delightful. The program is centered on exactly the composer who would have been the repertoire center of any player of light music in those days: Felix Mendelssohn, specifically, the various Songs Without Words. Separated into two groups, these are augmented by transcribed opera arias, songs, and a few melodies drawn from chamber or orchestral music. The transcriptions are very carefully done so as to draw Mendelssohn's melodies out in the flute, and it is something of a shame not to find out where they came from in the rather sketchy booklet documentation. But the Swiss duo of flutist Andrea Kollé and harpist Jasmine Vollmer has real chemistry, and Kollé demonstrates impressive chops in the few places where she gets the chance to show them (like the "Arab Song" from...
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