The flutist Katherine Bryan has plenty of competition among the crowd of younger players trying to supplant the household flute names of the late 20th/early 21st centuries, and she has several things going for her here. She gets fine engineering support from Scotland's Linn label, working in an unspecified location, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Jac van Steen is closely aligned with her phrasing and overall aims. The concept is clever: the "silver bow" is the flute, for which Bryan (with help on the ...
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The flutist Katherine Bryan has plenty of competition among the crowd of younger players trying to supplant the household flute names of the late 20th/early 21st centuries, and she has several things going for her here. She gets fine engineering support from Scotland's Linn label, working in an unspecified location, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Jac van Steen is closely aligned with her phrasing and overall aims. The concept is clever: the "silver bow" is the flute, for which Bryan (with help on the orchestral parts, but not on the flute part itself) has transcribed a variety of violin pieces, well known and not so much so. This is effectively done: the differences in expressive language and variety of articulation between the two big pieces at the beginning, Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending and Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28, are not just a matter of transcribing the notes, and they come through well in Bryan's rendering. But best of all is that, in...
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