Fanfare Magazine Mar-Apr/23 Praise for ‘Being Golden’
Reviews by Ken Meltzer and Colin Clarke
FEATURE REVIEW by Ken Meltzer
BEING GOLDEN • Suzanne Shulman (fl); Erica Goodman (hp) • WOLFTONE 22061 (63:04) Also available from major digital retailers
BONDON Swing No. 1. FRANÇAIX Cinque piccoli duetti. DEBUSSY La plus que lente. ERIC ROBERTSON The Rings. RAVEL Pièce en forme de Habanera. Pavane pour une infante défunte. Deux mélodies hébraïque
Being Golden is a recital by flutist Suzanne Shulman and harpist Erica Goodman. According to the recording’s liner notes, the two Canadian artists are approaching the 50th anniversary of their musical collaboration. The CD’s title is derived from the second movement of Eric Robertson’s suite, The Rings. Robertson composed The Rings to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of Suzanne Shulman and her husband Peter. Upon receiving Suzanne Shulman’s request for the work, Robertson turned to artist and poet Gary Dault “for his poetic input.” Dault responded with eight brief poems about marriage and love. The texts of the poems are included in the program notes. Each of those poems (“Flame,” “Being Golden,” “Coming Around,” “Incantation,” “Walking on Water,” “Seasons,” “Ringside,” “A Geometry of Love”) in turn serves as inspiration for a movement in Robertson’s suite. In his program notes, the composer recalls hearing, as a schoolchild, a 78-rpm recording of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for flute, clarinet, harp, and string quartet. It was the first time he had heard a concert harp: “What magic that sound created!” The influence of French Impressionist and post-Impressionist composers, whose music is featured throughout this CD, is clear in Robertson’s work. Both Robertson’s elegant writing for the flute/harp duo and his harmonic world fit comfortably within that tradition. Robertson also frequently calls upon his Scottish heritage, with folk dances and melodies woven throughout the fabric the suite. Brief echoes of Smetana, Handel, and William Byrd appear as well. It’s a charming, lyrical piece, a treasurable anniversary gift, and a marvelous vehicle for the two performers.
Shulman and Goodman perform all of the other works on this recording with unfailing elegance and style, exquisite tone, and a unanimity of artistic vision that bespeaks their decades of collaboration. The recorded sound is worthy of the high quality of the music-making. This is a delectable recording. Ken Meltzer
This article originally appeared in Issue 46:4 (Mar/Apr 2023) of Fanfare Magazine.
FANFARE: Colin Clarke
BEING GOLDEN • Suzanne Shulman (fl); Erica Goodman (hp) • WOLFTONE 22061 (63:04) Also available from major digital retailers
BONDON Swing No. 1. FRANÇAIX Cinque piccoli duetti. DEBUSSY La plus que lente. ERIC ROBERTSON The Rings. RAVEL Pièce en forme de Habanera. Pavane pour une infante défunte. Deux mélodies hébraïque
First up, why “golden”? Because flutist Suzanne Shulman and Erica Goodman have been playing together for some half century now, and their rapport shines through, not only in ensemble terms, but also in the way one feels they think almost as one. I wonder how many retakes they had to do for this recording. I am guessing not that many.
Some of the repertoire here is familiar; some might not be. The first piece, Swing No. 1 by Jacques Bondon, is terrific, full of Gallic life (Bondon studied in Paris, with Koechlin, Milhaud, and Rivier). It is the perfect opener and introduces the listener not only to the close musical bond Shulman and Goodman share, but to a composer well worthy of investigation. Impeccably French, this swing has sophistication and energy.
Better known is Jean Françaix, and there is a direct link to one of the performers here: Françaix dedicated the work to harpist Marie-Claire Jamet and flutist Christian Lardé (Suzanne Shulman studied with the latter in Paris). Each of the five movements has its own individual personality; the third movement, “Canzonetta” (faster than its title might imply), is particularly delightful and benefits from that telepathy between these two ladies mentioned earlier. The fourth movement, “Sogno,” has a particularly lovely sense of melancholy about it before an exuberant Rondo closes this lovely bouquet of pieces.
There is no indication of the arranger of the Debussy (the stand-alone piano piece La plus que lente), but of course it fits perfectly on flute and harp. The slightly smoky hint to Shulman’s tone here is captivating and perfect, and later the music positively flies in the wind.
While the booklet gives biographies for both performers, there is none for composer Eric Robertson (b. 1948), who provides his own program note for The Rings. Robertson was born in Scotland (Edinburgh) but has been mainly active in Canada, and has written some 60-plus film scores. His The Rings is a musical gift to Suzanne Shulman, who asked him to write this for her golden wedding anniversary. Robertson’s idea was to approach poet and artists Gary Dault for some poems around marriage (which are included in the booklet, along with Robertson’s commentary). Robertson pays homage to his Scottish roots in “Flame,” which takes in the Strathspey; its closing cadence is beautifully judged both by the performers and the composer. The word “Golden” seems to also to refer to sunshine in the second movement (from which the disc takes its title, “Being Golden”). This beautiful music, undemanding yet closely wrought, deserves and gets the best performance. I like that Robertson represents “Coming Around” by a musical passacaglia (and a very charming one at that), while the rising chord sequences seem to become ever more aspirational. A passacaglia with its repetitions can be quite mesmerizing; so can chant, and it is just that which informs “Incantation,” full of poignant harmonies. There is rather a nice link to Ravel in “Walking on Water,” a reminiscence of Robertson’s first experience of the harp itself, which included a performance of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet on an old 78-rpm disc. This, plus a minor Smetana “Vltava” quote, intrigues, but there is no doubting the Scottishness of the Burns-inspired “Seasons” (it features a faux-Celtic tune written by Robertson himself). “Ringside” is itself faux Handel (in the nicest way possible) before the final “Geometry of Love (Bells)” takes us to the church on time with a rather nice basis of William Byrd’s The Bells. The invocation of bells by Shulman and Goodman is incredibly beautiful, as is the way they realize the mood of each movement perfectly.
It is Ravel, mentioned above, who offers the final trio of pieces. The first, Pièce en forme de Habanera, composed as a vocalise-étude, fits so beautifully with flute and harp; Erica Goodman’s sense of rhythm propels this along nicely. The Pavane highlights Shulman’s lower register beautifully, and the phrasing is perfect; every note of this makes impeccable sense. We return to chant in “Kaddish,” played so hauntingly by Shulman, later adorned with the most beautiful harp swirls from Goodman, with the concluding “L’énigme éternelle” offering just the right question mark to end on.
The Shulman/Goodman partnership is one of the finest flute and harp duos I have ever heard, and together they have produced a perfectly programmed disc to treasure. The recording is excellent, with the instruments nicely placed in the sound picture.
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