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A recital excerpt from Saint-Saëns’ Odelette

Performers: Leslie Zieren, flute and John Randall Hawkins, piano

Camille Saint-Saens was a child prodigy composer who continued composing for most of his 86 years. He loved writing for woodwind instruments. This piece, written for flute and orchestra in 1920, is charming, graceful, and très French.

An excerpt from Nurit Barlev's Eastern Fantasy for flute and piano

fd_eastern.mp3 | 1.3MB

Performers: Leslie Zieren, flute and Nurit Barlev, piano

Ms. Barlev is a talented Bay Area composer and pianist with whom I had the incredible privilege of partnering with on this piece. I can't tell you how exciting it was to work with a real, living, breathing composer! I loved this piece the first time I heard it. Using the entire range of the flute, it weaves together Middle Eastern and Western melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements in motifs that express great sorrow, then joy, then sorrow -- over and over again--capturing and reflecting the inevitable fluctuation of these core emotions we all intimately know.

A recital excerpt from Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto in A Minor (Finale-Allegro)

fd_vivaldi.mp3 | 470kB

Performers: Leslie Zieren, piccolo and John Randall Hawkins, piano

Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4, 1678, and died in Vienna on July 28, 1741. He was a prolific composer of operas, cantatas, motets, concertos, sonatas, and string ensemble works. This piece was probably played first on a flautino, a high pitched recorder, but fits today's modern piccolo just fine. The work is energetic, with sections of extreme virtuosity juxtaposed with passages for the accompaniment alone.