A refined collection of French sonatas for flute and piano from the first half of the 20th Century. From Pierne's charming piece (1900), through the young Ravel's violin sonata transcribed for flute (1927) and Martin's unsettling Ballade (1939), we reach the year 1957 with Poulenc's typically mischevious work. Helena Macherel and Veronica Kuijken are the ideal guide on this unusual journey that will reserve unexpected pleasures to the listener's ear and mind.
Veronica Kuijken: There was more than one surprise in store for me as I took a closer look at the chronology of the works Helena and I have recorded here. For instance, the timeline I had spontaneously imagined for the years in which the works were written turned out not to correspond to the actual chronology at all, and the ages of the composers at the time they wrote them do not coincide with the youth or maturity they communicate. But these surprises actually make me rather happy, since they so beautifully illustrate the uniqueness of every person, quite apart from textbook music history!
Despite the 'frozen' aspect of a recording, we do very much hope that we have succeeded in bringing out the living, breathing quality of the music here. Compositions, we think, are a bit like children: having complete 'power' over them is impossible, since they have their own lives. Even composers can only send a work out into the world for it to live on independently since every time we listen, we hear a different version, don't we?
Swiss flutist Helena Macherel is a versatile musician who performs both as a soloist, as a chamber and orchestra musician in Europe and in the United States.
The Belgian-born pianist and violinist Veronica Kuijken has garnered praise for her unique exuberance as a chamber music partner. Her interest in communicating with others led her early on down the path of piano accompaniment. She found long-term inspiration in Irwin Gage, with whom she studied lied accompaniment at the Zurich Musikhochschule.
