CD Review (The Straits Times, March 2019)

SALVADOR BROTONS

Complete Works for Flute Vols.2 & 3

ROBERTO ALVAREZ, Flute et al

Vol.2  Centaur 3555 / ****1/2

Vol.3  Centaur 3556 / *****

The concluding two volumes of flute music by Catalan composer-conductor Salvador Brotons (born 1959) feature all his wind music which include the flute. His music is tonal but dissonant in parts, technically challenging and creatively varied in style and feel. 

These performances by local professional musicians led by Singapore Symphony Orchestra flautist Roberto Alvarez are very accomplished and well recorded in the studio of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory.

Volume 2 delights in the ensemble work of mostly woodwind quintets (Emphasis Op.9, Sax-Wind Quintet Op.15, Theme, Variations & Coda Op.29 and Essentiae Vitae Op.80), which reveal a vibrant and gritty tonal palette. Unusually scored is Virtus Op.53, for flute, string trio and piano which delights in piquant timbres and harmonies. And there is a debt to late Debussy in Ad Infinitum Op.13 for flute, viola and harp, although the wistful and haunting music has a totally different feel.

The flute comes to its own in Volume 3, opening with Giravolts (or Swirling Op.123, for solo flute), with its sinuous opening partly influenced by Debussy’s iconic solo Syrinx. More flautists join Alvarez, for Daulos (Op.11, for duet), Miniatures (Op.16, for flute trio), until one finally reaches the Flute Suite Op.41 for a grand choir of 10 flutes. This progression in ensemble is both fascinating and exhilarating. 

The major work is Prada 1950 for flute, clarinet and string quintet, a tribute to Catalan cello legend Pablo Casals who had exiled himself to Prades (France) during years of fascist rule in Spain by General Franco. The music is fraught with angst and nostalgia, but ultimately resolves in an air of triumph and hope.   

CD Review (The Straits Times, July 2017)

BROTONS Complete Flute Music Vol.1

ROBERTO ALVAREZ, Flute et al

Centaur 3554 / *****

Salvador Brotons is a well-regarded Catalonian composer who began his musical career as a flautist, playing in various Barcelona orchestras before turning to full-time conducting (he is the Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) and composition. 

His complete output for the flute will occupy three discs, and the first volume plays like a dream. His two Flute Sonatas (dating from 1979 and 1996), are works for a consummate virtuoso. Although employing dissonance and atonality to a certain extent, these are also very lyrical pieces. The second sonata is also scored as a concerto.

Also equally accessible is Coloured Skies (with harp), Fantasia Concertante (with marimba-vibraphone) and Three Divertimenti (with guitar). The earliest piece El Port De La Selva, written in 1975 as a 16-year-old, is a Catalan dance with a naive charm. 

The Spanish flautist Roberto Alvarez, principal piccolo player of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra is the ideal interpreter, fully attuned to the idiom as well as taking the myriad technical challenges and intricacies in his stride. 

This colourful Spanish production also has vital Singaporean links, with Beatrice Lin (piano), Katryna Tan (harp), Eugene Toh (percussion) and Kevin Loh (guitar) as Alvarez's partners. The recorded sound from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory studio is also excellent.   

ON THE FLIPSIDE: AN ANTIPODAL CONCERT / Roberto Alvarez with Shane Thio / Review

ON THE FLIPSIDE:

AN ANTIPODAL CONCERT

Roberto Alvarez, Flute

with Shane Thio, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (23 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 September 2014 with the title "Virtuoso prowess on flute and piano".

When Singapore Symphony Orchestra flautist Roberto Alvarez was young, he wondered where he would be if he dug a hole in his native Spain and burrowed across to the far side of the earth. Answer: He would have arrived near the islands of New Zealand. That is the premise of this “antipodal concert”, one that brought together flute works from both Spain and New Zealand.

Two Spanish works bookended two Kiwi pieces, every performance being a Singapore premiere. All four compositions were tonal, with varying degrees of dissonance and lyricism but fraught with severe technical demands for both flautist and pianist. The concert opened with Elisanda Fábregas’s Flute Sonata, four movements of rhythmically tricky and aurally piquant musical textures.

Its exoticism were an offshoot from the sound worlds of Debussy and Messiaen, dreamy and impressionistic in the slow movement but picked up pace in the fleet-footed scherzo, an exercise in staccato playing that extended without a break into the finale. Both Alvarez and pianist Shane Thio were pushed to wits end to overcome the complexities but acquitted themselves marvellously.

Gareth Farr’s Nga Whetu E Whitu (The Seven Stars) refers to the constellation of stars Matariki, known to the West as Pleiades, and used by sailors for navigation. Over the piano’s insistent syncopated rhythm floated the flute’s still and calm voice, and from this a haunting chant-like theme emerged as if commanded by the Spirits. This was contrasted with a vigorous, almost savage dance to close the work on a febrile high.

On Fire: Roberto Alvarez's flute
with Shane Thio on piano weathered
the storm in this tempestuous recital

The irregular heartbeat that opened Anthony Ritchie’s Flute Sonata was unnerving with its aggressive and menacing demeanour, and flutter-tonguing from the flute provided a quivering effect that added to its mystery. The slow movement was reminiscent of Bartok’s “night music” with its fleeting motifs and flickering half-lights, while the finale revelled in an exuberant dance of ostinatos with a tinge of the Oriental about it.

The final work, Salvador Brotons’s Flute Sonata flirted with atonality but never embraced it fully. There was a strange lushness in its slow first part that almost veered into sentimentality, but was resisted and kept at arm’s length through its course. A solo cadenza then led to a mercurial finale, which afforded a brief moment of reflection before its spiky and volatile conclusion.    

The encore was a World Premiere, Waltz of Fortune by Gonzalo Casielles, a delightful bonbon based on five notes derived from the number on a winning lottery ticket. This concert, a show of seemingly limitless virtuoso prowess, was attended by just 32 people. By their show of appreciation, it would seem they had hit a musical jackpot. 

Photographs by the kind permission of Roberto Alvarez.