Adagios Sérénades pour flute de pan

• Main performer: Simion "Syrinx" Stanciu
• Booklet languages: English, French, German
• Time: 71:26

Review

The delightful name of Simion Stanciu Syrinx, Romanian panpipe virtuoso, is enough to attract the browser to this disc, but neither the jacket nor even the booklet conveys a good idea of what the purchaser would get. There are just a few adagios, and not really any serenades. Ballyhooed inside is "The Event. The Meeting" between Syrinx and flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal for "surely the one and only time," but Rampal actually appears on only two of the disc's 19 tracks (concerto movements by Cimarosa and Vivaldi, tracks 2 and 19). What one gets instead is a series of mostly upbeat and mostly Baroque- or Classical-era pieces, arranged for panpipes and orchestra (or harp or guitar) by Syrinx himself. Fans of Gheorghe Zamfir will find something new in this release, for it shows how the panpipes, with distinct songful and athletic modes, can stand up to conventional classical repertory. The booklet makes the grandiose (if endearing) claim that "there is no doubt that had Mozart met our artist, and been given a taste of the instrument's warm resonance, he would have composed music for pan flute." Sample Syrinx's facile and elegant ornamentation in the slow movement of the Flute Concerto in C major by Leclair, track 17, and see if you aren't tempted to agree. As for Mozart himself, Syrinx joins harpist Marielle Nordmann for an enchanting trio of short pieces, beginning with Papageno's famous panpipe tune from The Magic Flute and proceeding to an (actually misattributed) encore piece called Tartine de beurre (Buttered Bread) before concluding with a rousing (for panpipes) Rondo alla turca. Given the variety of orchestras and accompanists involved, it seems as though this disc might have been assembled from previously recorded performances, but the notes give no clue as to when or where the music originated. Still and all, there's something elementally charming about well-played panpipes, an instrument that, as Syrinx points out, was "known to the Greeks 2,000 years before Christ." ~ James Manheim, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Johann Sebastian Bach	Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 (Badinerie)	1:26
Domenico Cimarosa	Concerto for 2 flutes & orchestra in G major (3ème mouvement)	4:25
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Minuets (8) for piano, K(2) 315a (K. 315g) (KV 315 in do majeur. Andante)	6:05
Johann Sebastian Bach	Concerto for oboe & violin (or 2 violins), strings & continuo (reconstruction), BWV 1060R (Adagio)	5:16
Gabriel Fauré	Pelléas et Mélisande, incidental music and suite for orchestra, Op. 80 (Sicilienne)	3:42
Carl Stamitz	Flute Concerto in G major, Op. 29 (Andante)	5:45
Béla Bartók	Romanian Folk Dances (6) (Román népi táncok), for piano, Sz. 56, BB 68 (Romanian Folk Dances Nos. 3 & 4)	3:57
Ludwig van Beethoven	Sonatina for mandolin & piano in C minor, WoO 43/1 (Adagio)	3:36
Luigi Boccherini	Flute Concerto in D major, G. 575 (Adagio)	4:35
Georg Philipp Telemann	Overture, suite for recorder (or flute), strings & continuo in A minor, TWV 55:a2 (Suite in A minor: Minuets Nos. 1 & 2)	3:05
Gaetano Nava	Notturnino, for harp & flute	4:52
Domenico Cimarosa	Oboe Concerto in C major/C minor (1er mouvement)	3:24
Béla Bartók	Work(s) (Concerto in D major)	3:09
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), opera, K. 620 (Air de Pagageno)	1:37
Leopold Mozart	Das Butterbrot, for piano	2:08
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major ("Alla Turca") K. 331 (K. 300i) (Marche turque)	2:04
Jean-Marie Leclair	Concerto for flute (or oboe), strings & continuo in C major, Op. 7/3	5:04
Alessandro Marcello	Concerto for oboe, strings & continuo in D minor, SF. 935 (often transposed to C minor) (Concerto for flute & strings in A major: Adagio)	4:27
Antonio Vivaldi	Concerto for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, violin, cello, harpsichord, strings & continuo in F major ("Il Proteo, o sia Il mondo"), RV 572 (1er mouvement)	2:49

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