The comparativist

Flautist Alexandra Walton and pianist Nigel Reeve took to Christ Church’s stage earlier today, as part of the midweek music concerts they organise. The last piano/flute duo I can recollect was Nalni Chen and Isabeau Hansen, back in December 2024; they played, then, a little Ian Clarke, a brilliant British composer who was also heard today with «Deep blue» and «Sunday morning», though today the highlight was Gershwin’s «Rhapsody in blue», which received a fantastic piano solo arrangement that was so well thought out you could have been fooled into believing this was the intended listening experience. It’s refreshing to have full pieces (in lieu of Internet-suited fragments of pieces – pieces without middles or endings), and musical pieces that combine with thematic clarity, like the «Six distractions for piano» composed by Nigel Reeve around the theme of spaces between notes. While the most originally named surely was «Lullaby on the notes B A B E & D A D», I was fascinated by ...