Jacques Around the Clock

In her program notes for this delightful new album the flutist Sue Ann Kahn writes: "One of the flutist's most precious legacies is the treasury of short pieces by Jacques Ibert. Gems from Ibert's most fertile years, these works charm, touch and amuse player and listener alike. As a young flutist, I made the acquaintance of Divertissment and the Wind Quinette, Trois Pieces Breve, savoring particularly the mischief in the first piece and the lightheartedness of the second. I devoured recordings of the Concerto and of Entr'acte by the great flutist Julius Baker, and I sensed a true affinity between Ibert's exotic but playful style and the sensuous color, melodic tenderness, and sparkle idiomatic to my chosen instrument. After several decades of performing Steles Orientees, Piece, Entr'acte, and Jeux, I found myself as enamored of Ibert's music as ever and, spurred by the hundredth anniversary of his birth, decided to gather his flute chamber works onto one disc. Jacques Around the Clock presents pieces as different as noon and night, from the whirlwind Entr'acte to the quiescent Aria. Unmistakably Spanish in flavor, the popular Entr'acte, inspired by Segovia's playing, begins the disc in its original flute and guitar scoring and returns at the end in the version for flute and harp."