Flutes in the Forest

About the programme

We open the concert with Vivaldi's Autumn with a foliage of flutes as bustling orange leaves with the occasional drizzle enveloping the stage. Fauré's Pavane follows as a slow procession - the last warm evening before the cold sets in.

What is left is one flute. Syrinx represents a lone nymph who turned into a bed of reeds to escape Pan, who then cut those reeds and made his first pipe from them.

From there the forest wakes one player at a time: Rameau's birds return in a duet and Wai Yen's Winter's Embrace follows the stillness of the tundra. Four flutes later carry Rimsky-Korsakov's bumblebee as spring approaches and five bring Köhler's Spring Song to life. As the forest grows alive, Doppler's The Bird of the Forest emerges, accompanied by five reptilian baritones.

By Mendelssohn's Scherzo for seven players, we are at midsummer and the wood is full of fairies. Grieg's Watchman's Song then brings eight old guards to the gates of the labyrinth, beaming to each other as they welcome the sun again.

Everyone returns in Summer for Gottschalk's Tarantella, a fast lively dance popular amongst eight-legged tarantulas. Fast and furious, they conclude the concert and we are relieved we do not see any of them in Sunny Singapore.