Two accomplished performers indulged themselves and their Redbridge Music Society audience last week at the Lambourne Room, Redrbridge Town Hall, with a rich programme of music for flute and piano.
Canadian flautist Colleen Muriel gave an unscheduled solo opening to the evening, wandering the hall like the Pied Piper with her long red hair flowing.
It was clear from the beginning of the ‘official’ programme, the Alleluia adapted from Mozart’s Exsultate Julilate, that Muriel would be emphasising the vocal qualities of her instrument.
This was particularly notable in her rendering of the Meditation from Massenet’s Thais, surely one of the most touching melodies ever written.
It is no surprise that Manuel Villet, as a former student of the great Nadian Boulanger, should include piano music by Debussy in his programme. The wide-ranging and complex sonorities of L’lsle joyeuse and the mystical sound-painting in La cathedrale engloutie are obviously in the blood, as well as the fingers, of this mature artist, although the upright piano of the Lambourne Room did neither him, nor Debussy, any favours.
In the second half, two pano compositions by Muriel evoking her rain-drenched native Vancouver, were followed by an engaging piece by Ken Dodkins, a member of the RMS, suitably entitled Enchantment.
Obviously enjoying themselves, the two instrumentalists then took us on an unexpected visit to the 18th century with an elegantly structured slow movement from Vivaldi’s conceto Il Cardellino.
Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the Rondo from the Concierto Pastoral by Rodrigo. This is music with attitude.
It has dynamism and energy, which is all the more impressive in that Rodrigo was 78 when he wrote it. Muriel and Villet gave it their feisty best.
Mandy Bentley The Recorder, London February 25, 2010
