DAVID LOEB (b.1939): Scenes from the Japanese Countryside for Solo Piccolo, ISANG YUN (1917-1995): Garak for Flute and Piano, TOSHIO HOSOKAWA (b.1955): Lied for Flute and Piano, WIL OFFERMANS (b.1960): Honami for Solo Flute, TORU TAKEMITSU (1930-1996): Air for Solo Flute, PIERRE-OCTAVE FERROUD (1900-1937): 3 pièces for Solo Flute.

Description: This program explores the cross-cultural influences between the music of Asia and the West. The three Asian composers represented write music derived in good part from the trends of western contemporary music, and intriguingly it is left to the westerners explicitly to emulate sounds and styles of the Orient, as in Offermans' emulation of the shakuhachi through extended techniques on the concert flute, in his Honami. The Ferroud is a suite of impressionistically tinged chinoiserie, charming and picturesque. Takemitsu's last work, Air is also frankly impressionistic, though obviously less straightforwardly modal, while the more modern-sounding, lyrical Hosokawa employs a degree of extended technique. Loeb's Scenes draw their inspiration from the delicate filigree textures of Chinese and Japanese painting, with a degree of pentatonic flavour, ornamented melodic lines and occasional bending of pitches to suggest eastern musical styles. Yun's Garak is more intense, and although lyrical, more dissonant than anything else here, in a terse dialogue between the wanderingly melodic flute line and a percussive piano accompaniment. Leonard Garrison (flute, piccolo), Kay Zavislak (piano).