It was the great Linus himself who taught Orpheus, the ancient singer par excellence, how to perform music before his jealous father Apollo killed him....

It was the great Linus himself who taught Orpheus, the ancient singer par excellence, how to perform music before his jealous father Apollo killed him. André Jolivet’s “Chant de Linos,” a highly expressive song of lament composed as a tonally virtuosic competition piece, impressively concludes this entertaining SACD portrait bringing together the flute soloist Helen Dabringhaus and her piano partner Sebastian Berakdar. Schubert’s “Trockene Blumen” and Bartók’s “Suite paysanne hongroise” form other highlights, both feared and loved, of the flute literature: here they encounter the moderated modernism of Hosokawa’s magical tones and – in its recording premiere – Carl Frühling’s romantic “Fantasie,” which is extant only in this piano version. A richly varied program distinguished by finesse and the very best!