Flute and Magic
Long before Mozart's "The Magic Flute", the flute has practised the art of seduction. Pan pacified ghosts with it in mythology, and Bach's famous "Badinage" has become the epitome of rat-piper brilliance. Throughout the centuries the flute was able to spread it's charm and the conjuring grace of it's tone, especially in combination with guitar. It is no accident that these two instruments in particular can draw from the full coffers of the centuries. This is true for the many transpositions as well as for the large amount of original compositions for flute and guitar, as this CD proves.
The flute does not only achieve erotic flair in "Bordel" and "Cafe´" by Tango grandmaster Astor Piazolla: it can be as wicked as in Tim Wheater's "High Heels". There it becomes a signal of unresistable sensuality. The romance "Maria on my mind" by the same composer is played with extraordinary tenderness by the duo. And who would deny that Andrew Lloyd Webber's super-hit "Memory"has it's own special charm in this adaptation. This is also true for "Sincerely", a jewel for people in love, by Estonian composer Valdo Preema.
So you see- flute and guitar "con amore". "Con umore" is possible as well,as shown by Jan Truhar in his small sonatina, the humorous example of an inspired musical dialog. Therein this piece meets with Tim Wheater's "Run to Sunday" as well as with the cunning "Recercada primera" by the Spaniard Diego Ortiz, who pays homage to courtly sound-poetry in his two other recercadas. The impulsive "Tambourin" by Gossec sounds as fresh today as it did 200 years ago. The loveable duo by Francesco Molino with it's flattering melody could have been penned by Rossini.
Even the truly great present themselves from an unusual side in the delicate dialog between flute and guitar: Mozart's "alla turka"-the composer himself authorized this adaptation- suddenly sounds like the mild breaking of waves, the Bach preludium like a lyrical love lament. And the Chopin waltz in it's exquisite simplicity reveals the intimacy of the salon. In contrast to this the flute beckons lasciviously in Celso Machado's "Pacoca" as well as in Jaques Ibert's "Entr'acte" in a tone of South American passion. There too exists a tonal magic between the two instruments: magic in-between.
Veronika Fuchs lives with her family and many animals in the country south of Karlsruhe. She studied at the Music Academies of Karlsruhe and Freiburg under Gerhard Braun and William Bennett. She plays in the most important Chamber- and Symphony orchestras of Baden-Württemberg, among them the Südwestrundfunk-Symphony orchestra (Public Radio Orchestra) and the Stuttgart Chamber orchestra.
She is at home on the chamber music podium as well as the orchestra pit of the Stuttgart musicals or in the studio with the German Pops Orchestra. She teaches flute at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Karlsruhe.
Boris Björn Bagger also studied in Karlsruhe and Freiburg.
He took master courses under Julian Bream, Narcisco Yepes, Wolfgang Lendle and Siegfried Behrend. He founded the Geman Guitar Quartet in 1989, and has worked with prominent soloists such as Martin Ostertag, Tabea Zimmermann, Kalle Randalu, Siiri Sisask and Jean-Claude Gérard as well as with conductors such as Pierre Boulez and Michael Gielen. Concert tours have taken him across Europe and Canada. Bagger's recordings have received airplay in both radio and television mediums and have been released on 18 CDs. Prominent composers have written for him. Bagger was honored with the Music Award of the Republic of Estonia in 1994. He has been teaching at the Music Academy Karlsruhe since 1990.
Translation: Alexander Jones, Karlsruhe
www.bellamusica.de und www.edition49.de
Recordings: Katapult Recording Studio, Karlsruhe, Germany (Kai Schlünz)