TIME
PLACE
SPIRIT
Flutist Beth Chandler Cahill has released her debut album, TIME PLACE SPIRIT: Music for Flute and Piano, with pianist Paulo Steinberg on the MSR Classics label. The program features 6 Pieces for Flute and Piano by Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov; Autumn for Flute and Piano, by Cécile Chaminade; Impressions Exotiques for Flute and Piano by Sigfrid Karg-Elert, which also includes the “Colibri” movement featuring piccolo; and an epic work, Blue Ridge Airs II for Flute and Piano by North Carolina-based composer Kenneth Frazelle. The unifying thread in this collection of works is a connection to nature, and the evocation of a particular time or place, all with spiritual undertones.
The program opens with the Amirov, a charmingly unique work based on folk melodies from Azerbaijan. The Chaminade is a beautiful little gem, a transcription by Trevor Wye, of a lyrically dramatic piece originally for piano. The Karg-Elert is better known within the flute canon, but is a rather unusual and colorful work, each movement having a programmatic, nostalgic, or spiritual influence. The cornerstone of the program, Kenneth Frazelle’s Blue Ridge Airs II, is a truly epic work, profoundly reflective of the beauty of the mountains and the inherent culture of the region where both the performers reside.
The album is widely available online, and CDs can be purchased directly: bethchandler.com, or chand2be@jmu.edu.