Expressive singing

Swiss flautist Ursula Büttiker already attracted attention with her first CD releases. The last student of André Jaunet, she also took singing lessons. So it is no wonder that her flute playing is primarily aimed at expressive cantabile.

The musician champions little-known works with the passion of a discoverer striving for counter-positions. Made the CD Musical Postcards with rarities by Pál Járdányi or Bryan Kelly, the follow-up production, all works for solo flute, stood out with works by Jindřich Feld and Saverio Mercadante.

The CD produced to mark the 150th anniversary of Hector Berlioz's death is entirely in the French tradition shaped by the flute maker and composer Theobald Boehm Élégie - Rêverie - Caprice with pianist Minako Matsuura playing along with a keen ear. At the center is Jules Mouquet, a Rome Prize winner inspired by Greek mythology. In his La Flûte de Pan In her sonata from 1906, impressionistic moods alternate with brilliance and virtuosity in a classical manner just as frequently as the dynamic contrasts. Although she manages with a minimum of vibrato, Ursula Büttiker develops impressive expressivity even in very low registers. Her bravura breathing technique benefits strongly chromaticized runs; the pianist's delicate touch enhances the sound magic of the many delicate echo effects.

Typical French elegance fills both the Cinq Pièces brèves from Mouquet, Chanson et Badinerie by Pierre Camus as well as the Élégie op. 47 by Theobald Boehm and the music crowned by a tarantella Three musical sketches by Wilhelm Bernhard Molique, who shares the same year of death as Berlioz. In Rêverie et Caprice op. 8, Berlioz's only concertante work, thanks to the subtle arrangement for flute and piano by Hans-Wolfgang Riedel, it is impossible to tell that it was originally set for violin and orchestra and is based on sketches for Teresa's cavatina from the opera Benvenuto Cellini based.