A review of Conversations
Two flutes and piano
Pierre Csillag
Conversations
Falls House Press
Is this the first ever flute piece to have come about because of existence the internet? The composer encountered the flautists Douglas Worthen and Christian Delafontaine via the world wide web, and a concert was planned, to include a piece specially written for the occasion. It is a light-hearted study of the development of new liaisons between three strangers, with all the attendant human social behaviours, defensiveness and misunderstandings which characterise the process.
At the heart of the piece is Chamailleries, a fascinating picture of the flowering of anger in the new relationship, and the means of dealing with those elements, as represented by two sections of improvisation by the players. The piano, obviously the dominant authority figure in this group, brings them both to an end, and the movement ends in happy embarrassment, with a quotation from Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 4. Wittily, the piano plays the original flute part, and the flutes try to emulate the four-part string accompaniment, using multiphonics.
This is preceded by Apologue and Politesses, where the instruments introduce themselves, and engage in an elaborate and fastidious social game, and followed by Happy End, a robust, arch-like Rondo. The piece, though not easy, is great fun, and could be a witty but substantial addition to a concert programme, with the proviso that, because of the multiphonics needed at the end of the third movement, the first part needs to be played on an open hole flute.
Leslie Sheills
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