Barnes & Noble

In terms of sheer sonic beauty, it's hard to imagine a more gratifying program of late 20th-century music than this collection of Toru Takemitsu's works for flute. Showcasing the Japanese composer's affinity for this delicately evocative woodwind, the album is also an homage to the French music he dearly loved. Takemitsu arranged Satie's "Le Fils des Étoiles" for flute and harp (1975), and clearly evokes Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp in his "And Then I Knew 'twas Wind" (1992), scored for the same distinctive trio of instruments. But in all the works here -- from the mini-concerto "I Hear the Water Dreaming" (1987) to his final composition, the "Air" for solo flute (1995) -- it's the subtlety of French music that is suggested, and this is a language in which featured performer Patrick Gallois is naturally fluent. The tone colors are carefully refined, and the harmonies float along impressionistically without obeying conventional laws; Takemitsu's fascination with the sounds of the natural world makes for a special link to the birdsong-obsessed Olivier Messiaen. The composer's Japanese heritage is audible too, as he alludes to the breathy sound and microtonal bends of the traditional shakuhachi flute even when writing for its Western cousin. The superb Gallois -- playing a mellow and smooth-toned wooden flute here -- performs the music with clear affection and sensitivity to its understated expression. As if displaying the same sculpture from different angles, the flutist sprinkles all three versions of the sublime "Toward the Sea" through the program: Each features the deeper alto flute, accompanied once by guitar, once by orchestra, and once by harp. Takemitsu's meditative, poetic, and finely crafted compositions make for the rare album that ought to be congenial to the music-for-relaxation audience and to avant-garde fans in equal measure. Scott Paulin

All Music Guide

Toru Takemitsu's arrangements of a prelude from Erik Satie's 1891 set of incidental music to a Rosicrucian mystery play shows the Japanese composer's sensitivity to tone color and instrumental technique. He asks the flutist (in this case, Fabrice Pierre) to tune the strings of his harp in an unconventional way to facilitate playing the chordal accompaniment of Satie's music. Flutist Patrick Gallois shifted from playing a conventional flute to a wooden flute in the 1990s after hearing some of Takemitsu's music for the Japanese instrument the shakuhachi. In this recording, the wooden flute has a warm and intimate quality that enhances the mystery of Satie's music. Both musicians perform with fluency and understanding. Deutsche Grammophon's sound (recorded in 1996 at the Warehouse in London) is close and intimate and this is a very attractive recording. Joseph Stevenson