Pan, the Flute Magazine

Recent years have seen an increasing number of recorded recitals devoted to British music. Susan Milan’s programme rather cleverly contrasts two works by Richard Rodney Bennett, representing the extremes of modernity to be found on the disc: Winter Music, an atonal piece from 1960 written for William Bennett and Susan Bradshaw (and recorded by them soon afterwards); and Summer Music, of 1983, written in a tonal idiom. The composer has said that the title of Winter Music has no significance beyond the time of its composition; Summer Music certainly has a sunny quality, and it has proved a popular choice for Associated Board exams. What the pieces have in common is their lyrical qualities, and that is true of most of the programme as a whole.

Robert Saxton’s Krystallen (1973) combines the two instruments to produce some exquisite sonorities in an advanced but approachable idiom. Some of Cecilia MacDowall’s works have become well known through ABRSM exams; The Moon Dances (2003), a set of three pieces, is in a more serious idiom than those, covering a wider emotional and expressive range, and is correspondingly more rewarding. The Aubade (1973) by Arthur Butterworth is a lovely song-like piece, expressive of the spring morning referred to by the composer.

Dave Heath’s Out of the Cool of 1986 has entered the repertoire as a piece with a jazz flavour that has been welcomed by players and audiences alike. The Sonata (2004) by Brian Lock has a tougher feel. The first movement is energetic, and the last almost frantic; even the central Cantando is restless and nervous.

Miss Milan has the full measure of the expressive and technical demands of these works, and is to be thanked for giving us a stimulating recital which will, it is to be hoped, encourage other players to seek out and champion British music of this quality.

—Christopher Steward