Sharon Bezaly's debut at DFP
"God's gift to the flute" made her debut at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas this week with Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Sharon Bezaly is one of very rare full time professional flute soloist, unlike Emmanuel Pahud who still plays with the Berlin Philharmonic and other ensembles from time to time. A graduate of Paris Conservertoire and student of Aurèle Nicolet, both Ms. Bezaly and Mr Pahud shared the same upbringing and sure comparisons have to be made, despite the lack of it. Mr Pahud has been hailed as successor to Jean-Pierre Rampal's mantle with his clear, wide tonal palette and vibrant musicality. Ms Bezaly meanwhile, has quotes attesting her flute playing comparable in virtuosity with names such as Vladimir Horowitz and David Oistrakh and has virtually perfect flute technique, including laser-precision tonguing (no shit, Sherlock) and perfect use of circular breathing. Both flautists has vastly different repertoires with Pahud specializing in Baroque masters such as Bach, Telemann,
Vivaldi while Bezaly champions contemporary composers such as Gubaidulina, Kalevi Aho and Christian Limberg to name a few (and has 7 concertos dedicated to her name).
This season for Dewan Filharmonic is an extremely auspicious year for flute enthusiasts, for when again can you have two best living flautists in the whole damned planet coming to Kuala Lumpur? Mr Pahud came down with his Berlin Baroque Soloists band and brought the whole house down with his two nights dedicated to Baroque masters last October. Sadly Bezaly's debut seemed to be dampened last Sunday, with lacklustre accompaniment by Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Mathias Bamert plus what I think is a equally lacklustre work, Nielsen's flute concerto. Or maybe we're just unlucky to have caught one of her Bezaly's off-days. Goodness knows whose choice is it, whether it's Ms Bezaly or the management or Mr Bamert or whoever, the Nielsen concerto dubbed a "Pastoral" piece isn't a really piece that's my cup of tea. Even though Mr Pahud recorded it with the Berliners and of course technically the work isn't cakewalk but it just ain't memorable.
However I may dead wrong. I was lucky enough to catch the rehearsal on Friday where they ran through the Nielsen thrice. Even seating at the back, Bezaly's tone could penetrate through the orchestra at some climaxes (although barely) although her tone isn't as commanding as Pahud. And her playing beguiled the group of schoolkids and observers with her typical virtuosity, especially those lightning sharp staccatos, non-existent need of breath and the golden tone from her luscious 24k gold custom-made Muramatsu flute (look at em' sparkle, ma!). Also I noticed Ms Bezaly requested Mr Bamert to speed up some passages a few times. See where's the fault? No wonder her virtuosity was virtually non-existent on THAT day in the Nielsen with the orchestra scrambling their way through the work Mr Bamert probably forgot some requests by Ms Bezaly at some passahes >_> and when she tried to shook Mr Bamert's hand at applause, he did not notice it and Ms Bezaly looked back at the audience, cheekily bemused. That guy's gone as soon as possible, the better since he looks totally clueless and I sure as hell won't miss him.
Overrated? God's gift to the flute? A flautist virtually without peer, not even Pahud could touch her? Those quotes were repeated in newspapers and promo ads prior to the concert and the Nielsen just turned out so-so but Ms Bezaly took out her encore, which was a piece from Sweden (as she told the audience) and then finally she showed them light. It was a sort of a folk-like piece with insane fast passages inserted in between which Ms Bezaly used flutter tonguing or goodness-knows-technique to produce a unnatural series of harmonics in the low registers, and a kid exclaimed "Wah" at my back. My jaw dropped as fast as anvil and could the wunderbar kid Pahud top that? Still the applause at the end indicated the audience still felt it wasn't a big deal but from Ms Bezaly's response, she may have took it in stride. Contrary to some rumours that she was cold and unfriendly, she was terribly warm and even more friendlier and receptive than Pahud when I met her after the Friday rehearsal. My newly-bought gold pen didn't work much effect on the "Bridges of Pyranees" cd I bought and she took the trouble trying to get another pen from her handbag (I think I'm going to weep!). So I got my programme book and cd autographed and despite some mispelling of my name (no fault of hers, I insist) I was in rapture, naturally.
The following Brahms 2nd wasn't too shabby, but again I switched to Bernstein/VPO after the whole thing. I can tell you those who attended the rehearsal on Friday noon must've felt it was the best RM 5 they've ever spend. After all, it was said that the great Toscanini produced more results in a rehearsal than in a concert. If you think Ms Bezaly ain't no big deal, listen to her "Bridges across the Pyranees" cd and listen to her Rodrigo's Concerto Pastorale, Ibert's Flute Concerto or the Carmen Fantasy by Borne and be prepared to be blown away. Ms Bezaly's "Nordic Spell" is on
my next shopping list!
Vivaldi while Bezaly champions contemporary composers such as Gubaidulina, Kalevi Aho and Christian Limberg to name a few (and has 7 concertos dedicated to her name).
This season for Dewan Filharmonic is an extremely auspicious year for flute enthusiasts, for when again can you have two best living flautists in the whole damned planet coming to Kuala Lumpur? Mr Pahud came down with his Berlin Baroque Soloists band and brought the whole house down with his two nights dedicated to Baroque masters last October. Sadly Bezaly's debut seemed to be dampened last Sunday, with lacklustre accompaniment by Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Mathias Bamert plus what I think is a equally lacklustre work, Nielsen's flute concerto. Or maybe we're just unlucky to have caught one of her Bezaly's off-days. Goodness knows whose choice is it, whether it's Ms Bezaly or the management or Mr Bamert or whoever, the Nielsen concerto dubbed a "Pastoral" piece isn't a really piece that's my cup of tea. Even though Mr Pahud recorded it with the Berliners and of course technically the work isn't cakewalk but it just ain't memorable.
However I may dead wrong. I was lucky enough to catch the rehearsal on Friday where they ran through the Nielsen thrice. Even seating at the back, Bezaly's tone could penetrate through the orchestra at some climaxes (although barely) although her tone isn't as commanding as Pahud. And her playing beguiled the group of schoolkids and observers with her typical virtuosity, especially those lightning sharp staccatos, non-existent need of breath and the golden tone from her luscious 24k gold custom-made Muramatsu flute (look at em' sparkle, ma!). Also I noticed Ms Bezaly requested Mr Bamert to speed up some passages a few times. See where's the fault? No wonder her virtuosity was virtually non-existent on THAT day in the Nielsen with the orchestra scrambling their way through the work Mr Bamert probably forgot some requests by Ms Bezaly at some passahes >_> and when she tried to shook Mr Bamert's hand at applause, he did not notice it and Ms Bezaly looked back at the audience, cheekily bemused. That guy's gone as soon as possible, the better since he looks totally clueless and I sure as hell won't miss him.
Overrated? God's gift to the flute? A flautist virtually without peer, not even Pahud could touch her? Those quotes were repeated in newspapers and promo ads prior to the concert and the Nielsen just turned out so-so but Ms Bezaly took out her encore, which was a piece from Sweden (as she told the audience) and then finally she showed them light. It was a sort of a folk-like piece with insane fast passages inserted in between which Ms Bezaly used flutter tonguing or goodness-knows-technique to produce a unnatural series of harmonics in the low registers, and a kid exclaimed "Wah" at my back. My jaw dropped as fast as anvil and could the wunderbar kid Pahud top that? Still the applause at the end indicated the audience still felt it wasn't a big deal but from Ms Bezaly's response, she may have took it in stride. Contrary to some rumours that she was cold and unfriendly, she was terribly warm and even more friendlier and receptive than Pahud when I met her after the Friday rehearsal. My newly-bought gold pen didn't work much effect on the "Bridges of Pyranees" cd I bought and she took the trouble trying to get another pen from her handbag (I think I'm going to weep!). So I got my programme book and cd autographed and despite some mispelling of my name (no fault of hers, I insist) I was in rapture, naturally.
The following Brahms 2nd wasn't too shabby, but again I switched to Bernstein/VPO after the whole thing. I can tell you those who attended the rehearsal on Friday noon must've felt it was the best RM 5 they've ever spend. After all, it was said that the great Toscanini produced more results in a rehearsal than in a concert. If you think Ms Bezaly ain't no big deal, listen to her "Bridges across the Pyranees" cd and listen to her Rodrigo's Concerto Pastorale, Ibert's Flute Concerto or the Carmen Fantasy by Borne and be prepared to be blown away. Ms Bezaly's "Nordic Spell" is on
my next shopping list!
posted by Corgan Sow at 9:48 pm
2 Comments:
nice blog u have.
I would think that Pahud champions in romantic/french/even mozart works.
For Baroque works, i'm huge fan of Patrick Gallois and Jacques Zoon!
Its good that Bezaly finds her niche in contemporary works. she does those circular breathing stuff really well, to a point of over-doing.
However she sounds so so so much better in recordings than live.
makes me wonder...... :P
p/s she's married to the boss of BIS.
"God's gift to the flute"? haha...
i think, "one of God's many gifts to the flute"
I have to say something cause I spent a couple of minutes reading this...and it comes inmediately the childish or rude attitude of someone quite shortsighted, thats why thinks comparing two musicians like the above mentioned makes sense. Its funny because his ears cant find music in the Nielsen concerto, but cant remember the swedish composer whose performance makes for his point. I just want to leave al that shit of god gift to the flute behind and treat music with the respect it deserves.
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