Flute and harp duos were amazingly popular 200 years ago, but now they are generally reserved for good background music at weddings and corporate events. Flutists will find little excitement in these works: the harp does most of the heavy lifting (and harpist Masumi Nagasawa is nothing less than radiant in her role). Ashley Solomon’s flute playing is about as good as it gets for someone tethered to the often intractable demands of period instruments, but some listeners may tire of the breathiness, pinched high notes, weak low range, and lack of vibrato, especially in relief against the full-bodied sound of the harp.
The good news is that the recorded sound exemplifies Channel Classics’ usual excellent quality. Some awkward page turning in the Rondoletto from the Naderman/Tolou Nocturne might have been avoided by doing an extra take, but it is hardly noticeable. Now for the bad news: few of these works reward close attention or repeated listening. Jan Krumpholtz, a leading harp player of his day and pupil of Haydn, seems not to have found a proper melody in any of the three movements of his Sonata. Mozart’s entry is the work of a nine-year-old, literally. The Gluck and Rossini arrangements are charming trifles (though none the worse for that); Friedrich Benda, son of the more famous Franz, is even less inspired than his father’s typical outpourings in this journeyman composition, and the other works by former harp greats (Bochsa and Naderman) might have been more successful without the flute part. It’s hard to fault the performances, but such talented musicians deserve a more interesting musical table on which to display their wares.
