2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 percussion, harp, piano, solo flute, strings
The music that begins and ends Music for Flute and Orchestra is marked “very rhythmic; dancing” in the score, and it presents a shifting array of sharply etched melodic motives in rapidly changing meter. That edgy, jazzy music encloses a central core of calmer music, roughly twice as slow (or half as fast), which enlarges upon the same melodic ideas. This work was written for flutist William Wittig.
The New American Scene: Including Ronald Perera’s Music for Flute and Orchestra, performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, William Wittig, flute, Edwin London, conductor. On Albany Records, Troy298. Available on:
Albany Records
iTunes
| Composed: | 1990 |
| Duration: | 10:00 |
| Publisher: | Pear Tree Music Publishers distributed By Subito Music |
Reviews:
A single movement sandwiching some delicate, contemplative “night music” between sections driven by rambunctious, angular motivic hijinks, Perera’s colorfully scored, tightly conceived work gave the orchestra an opportunity to enjoy greater extremes of expression than Mozart would allow. It also called into play a modestly sized but deftly employed percussion section, punctuating the musical conversation between flute and orchestra with a tam-tam stroke here, the pearly note of a crotale there, and carefully placed cymbal crashes of varying intensity. Smith and the SSO gave the Perera an enthusiastic, incisive reading. Its calculatedly capricious meter changes seemed well assimilated by conductor and orchestra, and the whole flowed with admirable organic smoothness.
Springfield (MA) Union-News 2/8/99
Perera treats the flute as a seductive and temperamental protagonist, sending the soloist on fanciful flights and tuneful adventures that complement the sometimes grand rhetoric of the orchestra.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer 4/16/97
Audio Excerpt:
William Wittig, flute, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Edwin London, conductor