Author: Dutchy
Date: 2010-10-12 04:28
I think when she's playing the recorder that her teacher or somebody needs to tell her, "Stand still and wait quietly while other musicians are playing." She looks very young, it's possible she simply hasn't assimilated that lesson yet. As soon as the oboe starts playing, she starts swaying back and forth in time with the music, almost fidgeting; she puts the recorder in her mouth, then takes it out again, then puts it in far too early for her cue, and stands there swaying until it's her turn. All of which I was taught were very bad stage manners for a musician.
Anyway, in my opinion the recorder doesn't "work" either, being a soft and quiet instrument more suited to a smaller ensemble in a smaller, more intimate venue. You can hear it over the harp, yes, a recorder and a harp go very well together, but in an effort to make the sound carry she's playing it with far too much vibrato. Also, it's a C-soprano recorder, which does not have the best tone intrinsically for concert performances, being rather on the shrill and "toylike" side of recorder intonation, and suitable really only for the upper part in a recorder consort; you don't normally use it for solos, that's what the F-treble (alto) is for. I think the music would have been better served by using the treble recorder in its upper octave. But even then, it still wouldn't be well served by the large string ensemble and the big hall (you can see at 2:59 just how big the hall is.)
I assume that the composer was going for an Irish penny-whistle effect, reasoning that a tin whistle and a recorder are both fipple flutes, but really, they're two completely different instruments with completely different sounds.
When it's the recorder and the oboe together at 1:53, I notice that the oboist suddenly has to crank it WAY down to ppp in order for the recorder to be heard at all, which is a shame and I'm sorry for him because he has a lovely tone himself. I'd like to hear more of the oboe and less of the squeaky soprano recorder.
And at 2:59 when the camera pulls back and the flute comes in, it's nearly inaudible. And as soon as the oboe joins her, this time he's NOT dialing it down to ppp because he knows this is an orchestral flute, not a recorder, and she's supposed to be able to hold her own with an oboe, so he plays normally at mp...except that the composer scored it for low register on the flute, so the flute sound is completely subsumed in the oboe.
At 3:22 she has a solo, and with just her and the harp, she's nearly inaudible, again because it's that lower register. The recorder carried better than the flute. The composer has failed to understand that the warm, intimate sound of a low flute is not suitable for a large concert hall.
At 3:52, with the full ensemble, you can't hear the flute at all. It's oboe, harp, and strings.
During the last minute or so, it sounds like she might be up in the higher register, but again, what you hear is mainly oboe and strings, far too many strings to balance against a single flute.
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