Twofold – Works by CPE Bach, Seeger, Debussy, Takemitsu, Reena Esmail, Shawn E Okpebholo, Saad Haddad
Brandon Patrick George (flute)
In a Circle ICR029 47:22 mins
Pairing canonical works for solo flute with new composers for the second time on album, Brandon Patrick George wants to unravel the ‘musical dialogues
that transcend space, time and identity’. While his debut solo album brought together works by Aho, Bach, Boulez and Prokofiev, this time he is is spreading his net wider still, with a programme celebrating the interplay between European, Hindustani and Japanese musical traditions.
Clocking in at just over 45 minutes, Twofold is an intimate, contained portrait of Brandon Patrick George as a flautist. These shorter works are exposing, with nowhere for the soloist to hide. We begin with CPE Bach’s Sonata in A minor, a piece that presents challenges in tone control and octave leaps. George rises to the occasion, delivering clear articulation even in the most challenging of intervals, before then tackling a work written in direct response to this sonata: Saad Haddad’s Tasalsul I. Utilising the lower registers, the piece plays with extended technique to express the microtonality of the nay, an ancient Arab recorder.
Ruth Crawford Seeger’s rarely performed Diaphonic Suite sits at the centre of the album, with four dynamic, short movements that ask a great deal of the player. George’s tone remains consistent throughout the relentless flowing passages. Debussy’s Syrinx, one of the flute repertoire’s most performed – and best-loved – works follows suit, before George ends with another highly lyrical work: Takemitsu’s Air, a piece directly inspired by the colourful harmonies and textures of Debussy’s writing, blending sounds from east and west. George’s tone is bold here, with a warm, fairly slow vibrato that calls to mind the stylings of Sharon Bezaly. This is a superb collection. Freya Parr
