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The British Flute Society President William Bennett OBE Honorary patrons Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway Vice-president Albert Cooper flute Chairman To be announced • flute• The Journal of the 3 News 37 Christopher Hyde-Smith: British Flute Society A life in music (and Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson and Michael diplomacy!) Volume 30 number 2 McHale. BFS competitions. Lorna McGhee. BFS Ju ne 2011 council announcements. Arcomis Flute Event, Simon Hunt on one of the grand figures of Cardiff. Flute School, London. Theobald Böhm Editor Robert Bigio ([email protected]) British flute playing. competition. Dates for your diary. • 43 Suzuki flute Contacting the BFS Secretary, advertising and editorial Diana Dickerson on flute teaching the Suzuki Anna Munks 27 Eskdale Gardens way. Purley, Surrey CR8 1ET Telephone and fax 020 8668 3360 Email [email protected] Membership secretary Nicola Thompson Albert Cooper 48 Wistow Road 11 Selby, North Yorkshire YO8 3LY Tributes to the great flute maker. Telephone 0845 680 1983 Email [email protected] 49 Tango like a tanguero • Editorial committee Robert Bigio Jessica Quiñones offers tips on tango Simon Hunt playing. Mike MacMahon • Copy editor Christopher Steward • Design and typesetting Robert Bigio • 21 Karen Jones Cover Flutes by Albert Cooper (from top): • Number 132. Gold with silver keys. Split E and split F sharp. Courtesy of Rainer Having it all (if you work hard enough). Schuelein. 54 Reviews • Number 139. Alto flute. Silver. Courtesy of Rainer Schuelein. 27 The Purcell School • Number 152. Gold with silver keys. CDs, books and music. C sharp trill. Courtesy of Douglas Nurturing talent in Hertfordshire. Townshend. The small print • Number 193. Silver. C sharp trill key. 70 Courtesy of Susan Milan. 31 Anton Braun’s new piccolo Photographs by Robert Bigio. to low C BFS council. AFT members. Small • advertisements. Membership information. Printed by The Russell Press Index of advertisers. 34 A morning off school • The Last Word... Views expressed by contributors are their own and do 72 not necessarily reflect the official view of the British Flute Society. All copyrights reserved. Carl Willetts remembers the 1966 Birmingham Registered charity No. 326473 Wind Competition and its winner, now known Robert Bigio has the very last word, with a little ISSN 2045–4074 rather well. help from Albert Einstein. www.bfs.org.uk News • BFS–RAM Premier Flautist Series, 6 March 2011: Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson and Michael McHale By Robert Bigio a piece of music that is (let’s be honest) not of the The second of the BFS–RAM Premier Flautist Series first rank into something truly worth hearing. The brought Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson, the principal flute sonatas by Jindřich Feld and Lowell Liebermann were of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the pianist played beautifully, with perfect control, the clearest Michael McHale to the Duke’s Hall articulation and the most ravishing of the Royal Academy of Music. pianississimos imaginable. Atli Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson strikes Heimir Sveinsson’s 21 Music Minutes me as the perfect flute player: con- (of which six were performed) is trolled, sensitive and musicianly, an interesting work requiring an with a phenomenal technique, a extra performer to ring a bell to glorious range of colours and an stop each movement after exactly astonishing dynamic range. Michael sixty seconds, resulting in a quite McHale is quite simply a sensa- different performance every time. tional pianist. The recital was fol- The question and answer lowed by a one-hour session during session that followed the recital which Stefán explained to the many was chaired by Karen Jones, flute players in the audience how he professor of flute at the RAM. does it. (The answer reduces to one Stefán, in a most engaging manner, word: work.) explained his practice routines The recital comprised three and made it clear that skill is only works that could be described as developed by hard work, and being on the edges of the standard more hard work. He showed that repertoire: Paul Taffanel’s Freischütz it is not necessary to make a huge Fantaisie, the Jindřich Feld Sonata sound in order to give a successful and the Lowell Liebermann Sonata; musical performance—a beautiful and one unfamiliar work by the sound, produced quietly, has great Icelandic composer Atli Heimir expressive power. But mostly, he Sveinsson. The Taffanel work is explained, if you want to be a not often played (or at least not great flute player you have to work often played well) because of its at it. The result of Stefán’s hard extreme technical difficulty, but work was plainly evident. This was was here rattled off with a jaw- as fine a flute and piano recital as I dropping virtuosity that turned have ever heard. www.bfs.org.uk 3 flute• • News BFS Competitions Left to right: Jagoda Krzeminska, Charlotte Ashton and Sunghyun Cho. Photographs by Carla Rees. By Thomas Hancox The winner of Class A was Jagoda Krzeminska, The BFS competitions attracted an unprecedented with Matthew Higham in second place and Rebecca number of applications this year, which resulted in a Nunn in third. Further merit medals were awarded very long but rich day of playing. Divided into three to Charlotte Perkins, Beth Stone and Marie Sato. classes, each category targets a specific age cohort and Charlotte Ashton won Class B, followed in second standard, ranging from Group A (Grades 7–8) to the place by Chloe-Angharad Bradshaw and Mark Taylor BFS Young Artist competition for emerging perform- in third. Catherine Hare and Jihyun Chang were ers under the age of twenty-six. awarded merit medals. Third place for the BFS Young Atarah Ben-Tovim (former chair of the BFS and Artist prize went to Zoya Vyazovskaya, with Joshua principal flute of the RLPO), Clare Southworth Batty taking second. However it was Sunghyun Cho’s (soloist and professor of flute at the RAM), and Tony performance of Boehm’s Nel cor più that clinched the Ovenell (ABRSM examiner and former principal flute prize, entitling him to perform in the BFS convention of RLPO) formed the core of the jury and were joined in Manchester in 2012. by Simon Hunt (founder member of the BFS) for the The day’s running is a result of a lot of hard BFS Young Artist prize. work on the part of many people. Of course, thanks Clare Southworth commented that, as ever, the must go to Atarah, Clare, Tony and Simon for their standard of playing continues to rise, although it attention, wisdom and encouragement, which will is still only a special few who stand out from the hopefully inform every participant’s future work. crowd. Perhaps this is partly owing to a limited Then, dovetailing apparently effortlessly for the entire and repetitious choice of repertoire (there were no day, were accompanists Jo Sealey and Richard Shaw fewer than eight renditions of Frank Martin’s Ballade, whose sensitive and supportive playing raised the level for example), with some competitors ‘disadvantaged of music-making. And finally thanks must go to all the because of their choice of piece’. Others were also administrative helpers from the BFS, including council hindered by a lack of detail in their memorisation, members Rachel Misson, Anne Hodgson, Hugh which, although a skill to be applauded, still requires Phillips, Carole Jenner-Timms and Kate Cuzner, who a fidelity to the text. Beyond this, Clare commented were all organised by the tireless BFS secretary, Anna that there was typically not enough variety in terms Munks. We are also grateful to Just Flutes, Top Wind, of colours, dynamics and vibrato—‘Too many people All Flutes Plus and June Emerson for donating prizes play with the same wobble!’ and to the Goldsmiths’ Company for their support. 4 June 2011 flute• News • Lorna McGhee, the BFS and Pittsburgh Lorna McGhee, who will be chamber music player. She has giving the third BFS–RAM performed as guest principal with Premier Flautist Series recital many orchestras, including the with Aleksander Szram on LSO, LPO, Academy of St-Martin- Sunday, 19 June, has just been in-the-Fields, Chamber Orchestra appointed principal flute in the of Europe and the Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Symphony Orchestra. In 2009 Lorna studied in her home Lorna was appointed International city of Edinburgh with the late Fellow in Flute at the RSAMD. She David Nicholson before attend- will join the Pittsburgh orchestra ing the Royal Academy of officially in January 2012 but will Music in London, where she tour Europe with the orchestra studied with William Bennett. this season. She was co-principal flute in Lorna is well known to readers the BBC Symphony Orchestra from her performances at BFS for some years before moving conventions. Her recital in the to Vancouver, Canada, where Premier Flautist Series will include she has been teaching at the University of British works by Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Karg-Elert, Columbia while continuing her career as a soloist and Gál, Schulhoff and Wolf. BFS–RAM Premier Flautist Series 5 pm, Sunday 19 June 2011 One-hour recital, immediately followed by Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music a one-hour question-and-answer session with the artist Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5HT Lorna McGhee Flute Felix Mendelssohn Andante and Rondo Capriccioso Op.14 Dimitri Shostakovich Romance from ‘The Limpid Stream’ Op. 39a Sigfrid Karg-Elert Chaconne, Caprice No. 30 Hans Gál Drei Intermezzi Op. 103 Erwin Schulhoff Sonata for flute and piano Hugo Wolf Gesang Weylas (from the Mörike Lieder) Aleksander Szram Piano Ticket information Members of the British Flute Society £15 Non-members £20 Special Student price £5 RAM Box office: 020 7873 7373 Online booking: www.ram.ac.uk www.bfs.org.uk 5 flute• • News BFS council announcements BFS Annual General Meeting Sunday 19 June 2011, 3 p.m Royal Academy of Music, London Just a reminder that all members are most welcome to attend the British Flute Society’s Annual General Meeting to be held at 3 p.m.

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