Recording of Gabriel Fauré's Op. 50, "Pavane" with a very "breathy flute"?

January 21, 2011 12:10 AM

I'm looking for a performance of Fauré's Op. 50, "Pavane" with a very "breathy flute."

I don't know exactly how to describe what I mean by a "breathy flute," but listen to a few seconds of this recording of a band called Änglagård (not classical music by any means, but this particular song starts with a flute solo) and you'll know the sort of sound I'm looking for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnYSuFn_qJA

Lots of breath, low vibrato, and a sort of... nostalgic feel. All the recordings I can find of Op. 50 seem to have a very subtle flute (not breathy and pronounced enough) or a lot of vibrato.

posted by Jay Jech to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Do you mean a specific recording which you have heard before, or one you only imagined so far? Flute plus what? Depending what you want it for, perhaps you should commission one. Most good players can modify their vibrato on request. You might prefer alto or bass flute, or shakuhachi? Australian Shakuhachi master Riley Lee has a commercially available recording (sample here). He does use a lot of finger virbrato, but the nostalgic feel and breathy sound are there. There's also a version by Jethro Tull.
posted by Coaticass at 1:59 AM on January 21, 2011

Response by poster: I certainly could have just imagined it, but I can hear the performance very clearly in my mind. It's an orchestra with a flute leading the melody. Here's a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra — a but less vibrato and this would end my search: Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa. It's a beautiful performance, but I find the flute vibrato distracting.

Both the shakuhachi sample you've shared, and the flute in the Jethro Tull arrangement, are much closer (for the flute sound) to what I'm looking for in the sense that they don't go heavy on the vibrato. I don't fault or question flute soloists for using vibrato in this piece (certainly they're much better musicians than I) but if any orchestral flute soloists took a different approach, I'm quite interested to hear the recording.
posted by Jay Jech at 11:22 AM on January 21, 2011

Response by poster: This is very much what I'm looking for! But there's no information about the recording. Perhaps I'll try sending a message to the uploader.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xON3en5yReA
posted by Jay Jech at 11:30 AM on January 21, 2011

Best answer: I think this might be it. At any rate, it definitely matches what I'm looking for.
New Philharmonia Orchestra, 17th December 1980, Chapel of Trinity College.

Thanks for your assistance. We got it!
posted by Jay Jech at 11:39 AM on January 21, 2011