Sciarrino - Music for flute

Salvatore Sciarrino Fauno che fischia a un merlo; D´un faune; La perfezione di un spirito sottile;
Bach/Sciarrino: Toccata e Fuga in re minore BWV 565

Mario Caroli, flute; Ernestine Stoop, harp; Tomoko Mukayiama, piano; Françoise Kubler, soprano; Christian Dierstein, bell

ATTACA 28118

This is probably the most esoteric disc which has come my way this year, but it should not be passed by.

It has been a pleasure to follow the career of Mario Caroli since his debut appearance at the Strasbourg Festival seven years ago.

There have been two brief sightings in London (Saariaho's Terrestre at Royal Festival Hall and Feldman at the Royal Academy of Arts) and some of his recordings to review.

I have long known that for Caroli, Sciarrino is a favourite composer; "- - playing Sciarrino's music is as natural to me as breathing". The music often becomes rarified as breathing itself, and the preferred dynamic is pp or ppp. I have found this new disc ideal for listening to in the intimacy of iPod earphones. The major work here (44 mins) has Caroli joined by the specialist soprano Françoise Kubler, and there is also a pecussionist playing bells. The other tracks have duos with harp and with piano - the remarkable pianist Tomoko (do see my photos of her in action at the Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam !).

There is one more "normal" work, which Caroli describes as a "metamorphosis of dinosaur to mouse", i.e. Sciarrino's improbable transcription for flute solo of the famous Bach organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor, previously recorded on a lovely Zig-Zag disc of Sciarrino arrangements Stories of Other Stories.

Searching the web, I have found a site on which you can listen to complete tracks from Sciarrino: L'Opera Per Flauto Vol. II, Caroli's other new release this year. Explore those, and you will be better placed to decide about the ATTACA disc (which has excellent multi-lingual descriptive notes by Caroli himself) than I could help you with a more detailed description.