Melomanie Soars Again

It was a long day of showing flutes on Saturday. I didn't leave the shop until after 5:00, and I was very tired. Mind you, it was a great day, but sometimes your ears get tired after listening to flute trials for 5 hours. So I met my friend Kristen for a bite to eat and then to the Melomanie concert at Grace Church. How wonderful to hear the first piece: Blavet's Sonata in A minor ("La Vibray", which is the name of a place in France that is said to have inspired the sonata) for Baroque Flute ( Kimberly Reighley)Viola da Gamba (Donna Fournier)and harpsichord (Tracy Richardson). The purity of the music and it's elegant phrasing and ornamentation soothed my tired ears and brought a welcome feeling of serenity. The Baroque flute in that room was almost ethereal. If you closed your eyes, you couldn't tell where the sound was coming from, it simply surrounded you. For me, this was a kind of musical sorbet; my ears were ready for more! Next was the Corelli Sonata in D Major, op 5/1 featuring Christof Richter (violin),Douglas McNames (cello) and Tracy Richardson. Corelli is creditied as the first composer to write instrumental sonatas. I especially enjoyed the ornamentation on the part of all 3 players. The work contained some wonderful examples of instrumental recitative, again wonderfully executed. The first half of the program ended with contemporary composer Yuko Uebayashi's Suite for Flute and Cello. Conversational in nature, this highly contrapuntal work was at times fun, always flowerful and so well performed. After intermission, Tracy Richardson performed 10 pieces from Bela Bartok's "Mikrokosmos" which was so thought provoking heard on the harpsichord. I loved the clarity it provided so that the structure of each of the miniatures was easily heard. The entire ensemble gathered for the final work: Sonata IV in A Major op. 12/4 by Louis-Gabriel Guillemain. How interesting to have gamba and cello in the same ensemble. The balance was excellent and the lines elegantly carved. This concert was just what this flutist needed to hear, and the large audience (did they listen to flute trials all day too?)agreed with long and warm applause for each work. Thank you Melonamie!