Various Composers - French Works for Flute (Adam Walker)

Information

• (01) Camille Saint-Saëns - Romance in D flat Major, Op. 37
• (02) César Franck - Sonata in A Major, M 8
• (06) Camille Saint-Saëns - Airs de ballet d'Ascanio
• (08) Charles-Marie Widor - Suite in C Minor, Op. 34
• (12) Maurice Duruflé - Prélude, récitatif et variations, Op. 3

Adam Walker, flute

Timothy Ridout, viola (12-14)

James Baillieu, piano

Date: 2021

Label: Chandos

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020229

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

In 2013 Ivan March wrote enthusiastically of ‘Vocalise’, the young LSO principal flautist Adam Walker’s debut recital disc accompanied by James Baillieu (Opus Arte, 7/13), stating: ‘He is a superb player, with a tone that is slightly cool, and there is much delicacy of nuance in his phrasing. This especially suits French music.’ In the intervening years Walker has popped up on disc a couple of times, most notably on a Huw Watkins programme from the Hallé Orchestra and Ryan Wigglesworth (NMC, 11/18) – and not least the release with his Orsino Ensemble reviewed above – but this Chandos debut is his first solo recording since 2013, and it’s very welcome. On paper alone this one is already delivering: an all-French programme, Walker partnering again with Baillieu, and joined for Durufle’s Prélude, récitatif et variations by yet another of the UK’s brightest young stars, viola player Timothy Ridout.

In execution it’s every bit as satisfying, to the extent that Walker’s clear, cool, bright tone, effortless technique and finely nuanced expressiveness will win you over whether or not you naturally gravitate towards solo flute. As for highlights, it may sound rather unoriginal to pick out Jean-Pierre Rampal’s arrangement of the Franck Violin Sonata but it really sounds fabulous here under Walker and Bailleiu’s fingertips; and, of course, it comes when we’ve already been warmed up and won over by their quiet, soulful drama of the programme-opening Saint-Saëns Romance. From Walker himself, there’s the serene legato fluidity and mountain-stream freshness of his sound, and the fine detail of his shaping, complemented by some immensely sensitive partnering from Baillieu, whose own top moments include the rippling, lucid-textured definition he brings to his fistfuls of notes in the second movement.

Those same qualities combine in the Widor Suite to deliver a central Romance that’ll stop you in your tracks. It seems rather inelegant to describe Walker’s capacity to spin an endlessly, seamlessly unfurling long line as ‘staggering’ but that’s what it is. I found myself on the edge of my seat as it just kept going, all with impeccable control and a constantly developing palette of colour.

The Duruflé is a 1929 work exuding a maturity years beyond its actual context – it was written while Duruflé was still a conservatoire student – and makes for a fine finale with the degree of delectable-toned, perfumed lyrical profundity the three of them have brought to its hymn tune. The impeccable balancing between the players produces some especially wonderful forte climaxes. Hugely enjoyable.

-- Charlotte Gardner, Gramophone

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adam Walker (born 1987 in Retford, Nottinghamshire) is an English flautist. He studied with with Gitte Sorensen at Chetham's School of Music, and Michael Cox at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2002, he became the youngest ever winner of the British Flute Society Competition, and in 2004 was a Concerto Finalist in the BBC Young Musicians Competition. Walker made many appearances on BBC Radio before making his Proms debut in 2008, the same year that he was appointed principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, he has performed with major orchestras around the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Walker_(flautist)

http://www.adamwalkerflute.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!