Debussy • Fauré

Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune; Clair de lune; La fille aux cheveux de lin; Fauré: Après un rêve; Fantaisie; Violin Sonata No. 1 in A, Op. 13 (arr. Stallman & Casadesus) Lisa Friend (flute),

Rohan De Silva (piano)

Chandos CHAN 20084 54:07 mins

What is more quintessentially French than the combination of Debussy, Fauré and the flute? It is hard to find any flautist today whose pedagogical lineage is devoid of a link to late-19th-century France. For that matter, is there any flautist who does not hanker to play the opening solo of Debussy’s Prélude à l’aprèsmidi d’un faune, the foundation of modern flute writing and much else? Little wonder, then, that this and numerous other French works have been arranged or transcribed for flute and piano, as celebrated in Lisa Friend’s new collection Essence.

Taking Debussy’s Prélude as its starting point and culminating in Robert Stallman’s convincing transcription of Fauré’s A major Violin Sonata, the disc showcases Friend’s creamily luxuriant tone, supported by Rohan da Silva’s refined pianism. Lyrical favourites of both composers are convincingly conveyed, though Henri Busser’s arrangement of Fauré’s Pavane is surprisingly absent. Après un rêve and Clair de lune are charming, while La fille aux cheveux de lin, with its low tessitura, is the most idiomatic. It is all lovely, perhaps overly so, with only the second part of Fauré’s Fantaisie disturbing the dreaminess before the Sonata springs to life. Christopher Dingle PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★