Francisco Correa and Emily Andrews : From Honey To Ashes: CD

STEPHEN GOSS: From Honey To Ashes ;  La Catedral Sumergida; Welsh Folksongs; The Autumn Song; American Pastoral; The Sea of the Edge; First Milonga Last Tango.

Francisco Correa (Guitar) and Emily Andrews (Flute)

Deux – Elles DXL 1204

This is a double CD with nearly 87 minutes of the complete works for flute and guitar by Stephen Goss, played by this husband and wife team.

 CD1: The title suite From Honey to Ashes is an eleven movement suite, but mostly with very short durations from as little as 1 minute exactly to the largest piece a little over 3 minutes. They are very contrasting and nearly every one has a story behind it, all of which are very interesting, but too much to put into this review. Suffice it to say that it is immediately obvious that these two make a wonderful duo, and that this set is very clever and a fine opener.

The next track is fascinating because La Catedral Sumergida  is actually a combination of two B minor pieces, the Etude Op35 No22 of Fernando Sor and the final movement of Agustin Barrios’ La Catedral, played in their entirety by Correa, with a new top flute part from Goss. You might think that sounds wrong, but actually, as he explains he has always considered them to need a top part, and so he provided it, and it sounds very effective. It shouldn’t, but it does! Moreover what wonderful flute playing from Emily!

Welsh Folksongs is a set of eight pieces that will be well known to many of you. They include Suo – Gan, and Lisa Lan to name two of the most famous. The music is very emotive and a lovely set indeed, and the second piece, Wrth Fynd Hefo Deio I Dywyn and the seventh Dafydd y Garreg Wen include some lovely vocals from Emily, in-between her flute playing. Again this is a lovely, vibrant set of great folk tunes, fabulously arranged by Goss, and performed beautifully by the duo.

CD11:

This begins with The Autumn Song, which opens with a long held high single note on the flute, followed by some rather unusual guitar moments mixed with some equally strange flute, all tempo – less. The effect is one of extreme sadness, even when the tempo gets more obvious. Halfway through, the mood changes somewhat as the speed increases slightly, but this is only temporary as the piece closes in sadness.

American Pastoral is a five movement suite beginning with Route 46 which does have plenty of forward thrust as the title suggests and some very energetic flute parts for Emily. Echoes of Silence, by contrast, is slow and full of moments of long silences, apparently portraying the wilderness of Monument Valley in Utah.

Outlaw Bluegrass is very quick and bouncy and both players have a great deal to do at a very energetic speed. This is lots of fun!

Nocturne in Blue and Silver is slow and a little jazz – like in some of its harmonies although the speed never changes throughout.

24/7 is the final movement which represents a drive down the strip in Las Vegas. The harmony work is a little unusual but not too modern. There is a gradual crescendo and a vibrant final few bars.

The Sea of the Edge is the only flute solo on the two CDs. It portrays an ocean on the moon, and therefore has some moments of unusual music along with a few flute effects that only go to show how wonderful a player Emily is. At six and a half minutes in length this is one of the longest tracks on the 2 CDs.

The final two tracks on the album are First Milonga , Last Tango, a pair that pay homage to Astor Piazzolla. The First Milonga is a sad little piece, written the week of Piazzolla’s death, and this is aptly represented in the musical style and harmonies, while the Last Tango, written years later uses little bits from one of Piazzolla’s works and is modern – friendly but much more up – tempo with lots for both players to do!

So this pair of CDs really does show how varied Stephen Goss’s pieces are .Yes, he writes in a very modern style but they are involving throughout and definitely worth hearing. Moreover both players have to be wonderful to cope with some of this man’s music, and take it from me that they both come out the other end of the CDs sounding wonderful throughout. It is beautifully recorded too!

Chris Dumigan