1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
very beautiful, not enough baroque, May 22, 2010
This review is from: Hubert Laws Plays Bach for Barone & Baker (Audio CD)
Preliminaries to get out of the way since the amazon page doesn't tell: this is a 2-cd set of Hubert Laws playing the 6 Bach flute sonatas bwv's 1030-5 with acoustic-electronic accompaniments arranged by David Budway; and the recording opens with a bonus track of Mr Laws in a schmaltzy rendition of the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria for flute, fr horn, harp and numerous strings, apropos ne rein.
As to the Bach: Law's playing is at once gorgeous and sweet starting with bwv 1030, and the accompaniment realizations are fresh and engaging...and they take over almost immediately.
The 1st problem is that the accompaniments are engineered much too forward, and Laws' sweetness quickly is heard as distant, back-of-studio, so we're really listening to Mr Budway because that's what's to the fore, and Mr Budway has indeed created real enchantments with his realizations movement by movement. Mr Budway is the real adventure here: what will he come up with next.
Which is the 2d problem: the soloist, the star, Hubert Laws. He plays EVERYTHING with gorgeous sweetness, a little under tempo, and very svelte. That's not Bach. That's not baroque. Laws doesn't seem to get baroque color and agony. His collaborator Budway seems to get it. The disparity makes for an unbalanced production.
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