A Poised and Capable Young Flutist

Young Concert Artists – a 45-year-old presenting organization – not only gives you outstanding young musicians. They give you unusual recitals, evenings featuring instruments not often heard in recital. From YCA, you can hear a viola recital, a trumpet recital, a double-bass recital, a French-horn recital, a triangle recital. (I made that last one up.) On Tuesday evening, we had a flute recital, in Zankel Hall.The soloist was Dora Seres, a young Hungarian (of course young – this is Young Concert Artists). Accompanying her was the (young) pianist Steven Beck, an American.In a way, you had to pity Ms. Seres. Exactly a month before, the man who is arguably the greatest flutist in the world – Emmanuel Pahud – had played a recital on this very stage. And he had with him surely one of the best pianists in the world: Yefim Bronfman. To make matters even more striking, Ms. Seres led off with the same work that Mr. Pahud had led off with.That was Reinecke’s “Undine” Sonata, a staple of the flute repertoire. Ms. Seres might not have been a match for Mr. Pahud, but music is a lot more than comparison. Ms. Seres is a poised and capable young musician.(Have you noticed that women are described as “poised” more than men?) Her technique is sure, and her musical sense keen. Her sound is not too breathy, and not too stark (unless she intends either of those extremes).As for Mr. Beck, he played confidently,in the Reinecke. The second movement – a scherzo – might have been more fluid, and less jerky, from both musicians.And the slow movement was not exactly warming. But this was competent playing, or better.Ms. Seres then played an unaccompanied sonata by Sigfrid Karg-Elert. Don’t know him? Oh, but you do: You must have heard his “Marche triomphale,” for organ, at a wedding, or at a Sunday service. (Probably not a funeral.) It is a perpetual hit of the organ repertoire. But Karg-Elert composed other things, including this one-movement sonata in F-sharp minor, nicknamed “the Appassionata” (a la Beethoven). It is a brief tour de force for flute, and Ms. Seres made the most of it.I might say, however, that Ms. Seres could have memorized the work, rather than having the sheet music laid out on a stand. And I will not refrain from remarking on the “Zankel subway” (boring as the subject is): In an unaccompanied flute sonata – not that you get a million of those – those trains are deafening.All of a sudden, we were at a chamber concert. Joining Ms. Seres and Mr. Beck was the cellist Robert Martin, for the Trio in G minor by Weber. (Mr. Martin is director of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.) This may not be an immortal work, but it’s a worthy one: pleasant, well shaped, and utterly Weberian. All three players displayed commitment, good sense, and a nice ensembleship.After intermission, this variety show of an evening continued with a second unaccompanied work: “Voice,” by Toru Takemitsu.This piece calls on the flutist to make any number of sounds, some of them not so purty. (But that is not the point: Extraordinary communication is.) The sounds the flutist makes include spoken words – words in at least two languages, French and English. (I may have missed another, in the flutey mayhem.) The flutist also taps his instrument, or her instrument, making yet more sounds.“Voice,” like other Takemitsu pieces, is supposed to enchant, amaze, bewitch. I must say it had zero effect on me, but that could have been a matter of mood. In any case, Ms. Seres executed the piece very well, even brilliantly.Then, a little show business – and a return to Weber: Ms. Seres played Taffanel’s Fantaisie on “Der Freischutz” (Weber’s most successful opera). In the course of this “fantasy,” you hear the wonderful soprano aria, “Leise, leise” (which, on Tuesday night, made me want to hear it sung, actually). Ms. Seres pulled out all the flute stops, playing with virtuosity and panache.The pianist might have summoned up a little more style of his own – but it’s the flutist’s moment, to be sure.Odd that Ms. Seres didn’t end her printed program with this naturally recital-ending number. Instead, she played the sonata that Lowell Liebermann wrote for flute and piano in 1987. (He wrote it,specifically,for Paula Robison and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.) In two movements – with shifting sections within those movements – this is an intelligent and beautiful work, to which our performers did justice.When Ms.Seres announced an encore – incomprehensibly – a voice called out, loudly,”What? “The voice belonged to Susan Wadsworth, the director of Young Concert Artists. Quite right: Inaudibility in announcing encores – and other things – is a bane of concert life. I wish Susan Wadsworth were present at every concert to yell at the performers.Anyway, what Ms. Seres played was some Brazilian job (I think), and she played it with slithering grace and spirit.We’re lucky that Dora Seres is on the scene, because man cannot live on Sir James Galway – or Emmanuel Pahud – alone. We need more flutists, and more flute recitals. And other recitals. For one thing, these recitals expose repertoire that should not be locked away. YCA is a very happy part of New York’s cultural life.

A Poised and Capable Young Flutist

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