Piccinini Takes Aggressive Approach in Flute Recital

Marina Piccinini seemed impatient with the limitations of her chosen instrument, the flute, Friday night in UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall. She certainly pushed it to the edge of its capabilities, with aggression and virtuosity.

But in her attempt to break the shackles of flutedom, she continually butted heads with acoustical law. Sometimes a flute is just a flute. No matter how hard you try, it cannot accomplish the breadth and grandeur of phrase that a violin can. Nor can it duplicate a low clarinet’s pungency and depth of sound.

In her recital with pianist William Wolfram, the young Canadian musician displayed unrelenting technical gusto, an original take on the flute’s potentials, and stubborn musicianship. This resulted in astonishingly loud and keenly directed playing, though not always engaging or personable performances.

In Beethoven’s Opus 41 Serenade, she hammered notes forcefully, her tone sure and centered, but sweetness and levity went missing. In her own transcription of Faure’s Violin Sonata, Opus 13, Piccinini pressed the long-limbed phrases in an attempt at sweep, producing instead a kind of hard, projectile lyricism.

Similarly, in Fukushima’s “Mei,” Debussy’s “Syrinx” and Foss’ “Three American Pieces,” Piccinini showed technical mastery and coloristic control (her tone could be whittled down to a wafer-thin shine), yet lacked the delicate touch that would catch their poetry and atmosphere.

Even her drilling of Borne’s showpiece “Fantaisie Brillante sur Carmen” became a bold exercise in power and polish, and little fun. Wolfram proved a sensitive and faceted performer, and usually the more interesting to listen to.