 Editor's Choice -
Best Of The Month
October 2010
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The Hollywood Flute of Louise DiTullio
Music composed by John Barry, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, David Rose, Laurence Rosenthal, Ronald Royer, and John Williams.
17 Tracks (Playing Time = 72:54)
Album produced by Jeannie Gayle Pool and Ronald Royer. Featuring Louise DiTullio, flutes. Performed by the Sinfonia Toronto conducted by Ronald Royer. “HOOK Suite” arranged by Mark Watters. Other selections arranged by Ronald Royer. Recorded at Kick Audio, Toronto, Canada, March 1-4, 2009.
Recording engineered by Jeff Wolpert.
Music edited and mixed by Jeff Wolpert at Desert Fish.
CD Design by Ffortisimo Creative Studio.
Cambria Records 1194
Rating: ****
Editor's Note:
This CD was recently evaluated by me and I believe it is one of the best soloist performances of film music in recent years. Louise DiTullio's flute playing is flawless and the choice of film music is outstanding, especially the suite from HOOK, arranged by Mark Watters. Also, the selections arranged by Ronald Royer make for very enjoyable listening. Because of its excellence I am designating this CD as Editor's Choice, Best of the
Month. It fully deserves any accolades it might receive.
--Roger Hall, Film Music Review, November 2010
Additional Note:
Louise DiTullio recently contacted us to let us know that the performance of Laurence Rosenthal's "The Piper" is a CD premiere. Mr. Rosenthal evidently loved the performance and was thrilled that it was on the CD. The recording is being submitted for Grammy consideration as well.
Steven Kennedy's CD review:
It would be a very safe bet that there is not a person who has gone to the movies in the past 40 years that has not heard the flute playing of Louise DiTullio. DiTullio has over 1200 film score recordings to her credit and also bears the distinction of having made some of the classic Stravinsky Columbia recordings with the composer conducting. Her exquisite playing in films like DANCES WITH WOLVES and HOOK elevated the music in ways its composers might never have expected. The present disc is a pet project of the flautist intending to pull together some of the finest flute solo moments from some fond film scores so that they can be performed more often in concert. The chamber music format allows a wider opportunity for the music to be used as well.
The CD opens with a suite of selections arranged from HOOK by Mark Watters. Watters has managed a fine reduction of this classic John Williams’ score and the reduced forces are not noticeable at all. The music moves beautifully from the “Prologue” through smaller cues, the beautiful “You Are the Pan,” “When You’re Alone,” and concludes with “The Lost Boys Chase.” It all works rather splendidly.
Conductor Ronald Royer arranged the remaining film music selections. Again, pulling out more of the flute lines for the music from DANCES WITH WOLVES does not damage the integrity of Barry’s musical ideas at all. They are helped by DiTullio’s sensitive and rich playing. The music from Elfman’s CHARLOTTE’S WEB is an odd choice and less interesting than much of the other material on the disc, but it does provide for some stylistic diversity. There are two Jerry Goldsmith themes included on the disc. The first one from SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY has a sinuously dark quality while the sheer beauty of the theme from RUDY, which closes the entire program, is a gorgeous and fitting conclusion to the disc.
Music inspired by the Wind in the Willows stories is heard in the unaccompanied flute piece by Laurence Rosenthal, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The work is an amazing demonstration of DiTullio’s technical skill as well as being a fine solo flute work in its own right. It begins a segment of the disc devoted to concert hall pieces with some Hollywood connection.
The thirteen-minute Short Stories by conductor Ronald Royer is a sort of homage to great film music styles and composers from film noir to Mancini. It a rather unique work in that each movement uses a flute from a different register allowing for a quick exploration of the virtuosic abilities on each. The alto flute, bass flute, C flute (regular flute), and piccolo each get their own movement.
David Rose wrote Le Papillon for DiTullio in 1980 and through the work of Royer the piece can now be enjoyed by a host of chamber music audiences in this reduced ensemble version. This near fifteen-minute piece is simply gorgeous with enough of Rose’s filmic touches to identify his musical voice quite easily.
Overall, the sound of this release is superb. The flute manages to cut through the chamber textures quite well. Apart from a couple of perhaps overly-exuberant French horn moments that almost blurt, the music making here by the Sinfonia Toronto is perfect with a dedication to rival their colleagues in Southern California. DiTullio’s playing is simply magical and one quickly hears why so many of Hollywood’s finest composers turned and continue to turn to her to interpret their music. Her brief comments personalize this music in a way we might otherwise overlook while the additional liner notes remind the listener that so often Hollywood performers come to sessions music unseen and have roughly an hour for every 5 minutes of music to get it right.
The present CD is worth tracking down for any number of reasons whether it be repertoire or performance. It ends far too soon even though it is quite generous in its playing time. Some might find themselves running to their music libraries to listen carefully again to DiTullio’s performances in their original score sessions. Easily one of the best film music compilations this year!
--Steven A. Kennedy , 19 September 2010
Comments regarding this review can be sent to this address: stev4uth@hotmail.com
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