Untitled Document

ATTIS at Sutton House
Guiot; Jongen; Piazzolla; Damase; Matthew Wright; Cecilia McDowall (23 November 2003)

Sutton House in Homerton High Street is an oasis of the living past in a bustling urban area of East London, its restored Wenlock Barn a valued venue for intimate music making, with regular prestigious concerts hosted by the Sutton House Music Society, and available for bookings by other groups.

The Attis Flute Quartet began with Raymond Guiot's Divertimento Jazz, a good starter for their recital. Joseph Jongen's Elegie proved especially affecting, with strong leadership (they took democratic turns to lead the group but were unnamed in the programme).

Hattie Webster, Amanda Moore, Heledd Francis & Detta Danford

The centre piece of this recital was Jean Michel Damase's flute quartet. Composed in 1992, he eschews modernity and it is gratefully written for these favourite instruments of his, but I fear it is a shade bland and quickly forgettable.

Cecilia McDowall's Hotfoot, with African references might benefit from a little extension, whereas Piazzolla's Histoire du Tango (originally for flute & guitar) outstayed its welcome. The movements each seemed too long for their content, as can often happen with this cult composer, and the four flutes left me hankering for the bite of his bandoneon.

Cutting edge music of today was represented by a commission from an Andriessen pupil, Matthew Wright's In the Quiet of You. This exploits abrasive timbres and flutter-tonguing in interesting combinations, individual but not quite adding up to a satisfying work as a whole. However, I think they might do well to stick with that composer and persuade him to write another piece for them, perhaps exploiting the palate of timbres offered by the flute family's range of different sizes?

Pupils of Anna Noakes at Trinity College of Music, Attis had made a good impression in a Jean Michel Damase evening at Greenwich recently and now are branching out into professional careers. Their performances were, in the main, suave, perfectly tuned, and emphasised the essential beauty of their instrument. A quartet of flutes can sustain a full recital more satisfactorily than those of other wind instruments. Part of the pleasure was the appearance of these four young women; flutes are very visual instruments and, standing behind their elegant 'designer' music stands, they made a pretty picture. Dare one say however that their interpretations were a little too smooth and ladylike? Their spoken introductions, also, were too diffident.

They will be participating in the Oxford Festival and a CD is in prospect. Preparing for those, they would do well to consider the practising methods of Ivan Moravec and Menuhin's advice to students to maximise in practising dynamic & tempo contrasts, rubato etc, and then reduce them to within the point of 'good taste'. Contrasting (and if possible stronger) repertoire will be crucial, if interest is to be held by ears alone, and maybe some solos and duos to identify the players as individuals? It would be sensible for Attis to prepare a video clip of a representative short piece (McDowall's?) to put onto an Attis website, with a link from the CD when available. I hope they will consider trying for the PLG Young Musicians platform.