Sofia de Salis / Elina Kachalova FRENCH IMPRESSIONS

Flutist of Russian origin, Sofia de Salis won various international competitions and performed as a soloist with symphony and chamber orchestras; she also gave recitals with renowned pianists and chamber musicians. Her musicality and the quality of her sound are the distinctive elements of her talent. 

Born in Moscow to a father who is well known as an artist-painter and to a singer mother, Sofia de Salis starts learning music at the age of four. After brilliant studies at the Moscow Conservatory, crowned with a concert diploma with distinction, she continued her training at the Conservatory of Basel in the class of Felix Renggli, where she obtained a concert diploma and an education diploma. She also studied in master classes or workshops with Renata Greis-Armin, Aurèle Nicolet, Ransom Wilson, Bartold Kuijken, Rachel Braun, Pierre-Yves Artaud, Andras Adorjan and Jacques Zoon. To enrich her musical experience in the field of Baroque, she followed the traverso course given by Oskar Peter at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Her interest also extends to modern music and Sofia de Salis performed works by contemporary composers such as Pierre Boulez, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jost Meier, Jürg Wittenbach and Samuel Ducommun, some of whom she had the opportunity to collaborate with.

Providing a platform for young artists has always been important to the label Ars produktion, next to helping them lay the groundwork for a music career. The young flutist Sofia de Salis, who enjoyed tuition among the most distinguished teachers and has already won numerous competitions, will certainly continue to achieve great success in the future.

Juliette Hurel / Hélène Couvert DEBUSSY - JOLIVET - MESSIAEN - DUTILLEUX - HERSANT - DUSAPIN - TANGUY - VARESE

This is a CD only a flutist could love: It is heavy on the solo repertoire and comprised entirely of “new” music. Juliette Hurel makes obvious choices such as pairing Syrinx and Densité 21.5 as disc openers, both of which she plays well, though the latter could use a little more vehemence, more force. She also closes the disc with three solo offerings, which is a lot of flute-alone for anyone (save for other flutists) to take in a single listening. Pascal Dusapin’s I Pesci is comprised of three short and sweet movements, and Hurel plays all of them beautifully if not a little to carefully–she seems determined to make every solo sound “pretty” rather than exploring the flute’s more dramatic expressive possibilities. Only when it comes to Phillipe Hersant’s Cinq Miniatures, each of whose five movements is intended to evoke a particular kind of non-Western flute style, does she allow her tone to vary.

The three accompanied works are worth a serious listen. Dutilleux’s 1943 Sonatine is delightfully spry and fiendishly difficult, challenges that Hurel and pianist Helene Couvert attack with frothy élan. Perhaps being spurred on a little by a musical cohort draws a less dark, more focused sound from Hurel. She and Couvert make short work of Jolivet’s furious Chant de Linos but fare not so well on Messiaen’s Merle Noir, where the tone of the two players seems mismatched, as if they are working at cross-purposes. The recording is intimate and focused, allowing the flute to sound beautiful but never shrill. (Classics Today)