Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Sharon Bezaly - Synergy (2022) [Hi-Res]

On "Synergy", flautist Sharon Bezaly and her musician friends demonstrate that one plus one can be much greater than two. Featuring works that celebrate the coming together of like-minded musicians, this project is a reminder, after more than two years of a pandemic that has affected all of us, that true musical synergy can only be achieved "face-to-face", rather than "remotely".

With his Concerto for Flute and Recorder, Telemann not only creates a fusion of different musical styles of his time – namely Italian, German and French – but also shows a gift for borrowing elements from popular music. Saint-Saëns brings swirling colours and energy with a Tarentelle for Flute, Clarinet and Orchestra, that at times displays obsessive, even threatening undertones. From the same period, Doppler’s Concerto for Two Flutes is not far from the world of opera, providing the two soloists with ample opportunity to shine like two singers in front of an orchestra.

In addition to celebrating the synergy created between musicians, the last two works featured here, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6 and some excerpts from J. S. Bach's Orchestral Suites, are telling examples of synergy between composers: it is as if Villa-Lobos and Mahler were shaking hands with Johann Sebastian Bach across distances of thousands of miles and hundreds of years.