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AGP073 - Richard Craig plays solo flute works by James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, and Salvatore Sciarrino 
AGP73 is a new departure for the Avant Garde Project in that it is neither an LP nor CD transcription. Its five tracks feature the astonishing flute playing of Richard Craig, a Scottish flautist who made his London debut in 2005 to exuberant reviews. Mr. Craig has selected an intriguing repertoire of highly demanding modern works for solo flute, which he plays with a command and sensitivity that takes my breath away (note flute pun). The rich, detailed recording by Douglas Whates does full justice to the musicianship. I'm really excited about this installment. My thanks to all involved for offering this wonderful music for free download. For more information on Mr. Craig, see www.richardcraig.net. Here are Mr. Craig's notes on these performances: James Dillon - Sgothan Brian Ferneyhough - Cassandra's Dream Song Salvatore Sciarrino - 3 Pieces from L'opera per flauto Conceived as an act to preserve the purity and integrity of the sound documents (a proposition widely disregarded these days) it was recorded in a five hour session without a break in an almost Dogme95-like stance. Alongside, is the intention of capturing all of the personal idiosyncrasies, inflections and internal references, conscious or otherwise, that are omnipresent in live performance - there has been no editing of the the material, neither for page turns or 'mistakes', and all are complete 'takes'. As a result, there is a migration of the sound which is obvious in the Dillon when I move to the next page-a small but charming addition to the gradual winding-down of 'Sgothan'. James Dillon's music is embedded in syntax and turbulence. In 'Sgothan', this manifests itself as 24 interwoven miniatures, in various states of equilibrium and volatility, colliding and diffracting from each other with varying degrees of temporal and sonic flux, whilst retaining a disquieting naivete. Brian Ferneyhough's labyrinthine systems reveal a work of surprising fragility and hyper-expression in 'Cassandra's Dream Song', his first essay for flute and one of the iconoclasts of its time. 'Come vengono prodotti gli incantesimi?' 'Canzona di ringraziamento' and 'Lettera degli antipodi portata dal vento' surround us in the world of whispers and shadows which Salvatore Sciarrino inhabits. With unassuming ascendancy, the music envelopes us and erodes our concepts of borders and limitations with incantations, songs of thanks and letters to the antipodes, all of which are steeped in semiotics, the meanings and signs of which are unearthed in this recording. Richard Craig (www.richardcraig.net) Recorded by: Douglas Whates, Natural Studio (http://www.naturalstudio.co.uk/records/) at Wellington Church, Glasgow, Scotland on the 15th of August, 2005. Dogme95 ("The Vow of Chastity", Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg) |