Saint-Saëns: L’explorateur

Kyunghee Kim-Sutre, harp; Guillaume Sutre, violin; and Steven Vanhauwaert, piano. Sonarti, 2021.

Kyunghee Kim-Sutre’s contribution to L’explorateur is in a mere two works on an album of music by Saint-Saëns, but so divinely played it bears mentioning. The stated intention of the artists is to pay tribute to the composer’s exploration of the instruments’ technical range and to hear “perfumed sonorities and textures” as if one were on a worldwide tour in sound. 

Saint-Saëns composed the Fantasie in A Minor for Harp as a compulsory test piece, a way for a student to display their technical prowess but an equal challenge for composer and performer alike to create something that delights as a work of art. Kim-Sutre plays with muted exuberance, a scintillating tonal palette and refined poise. This serves to create a startling breath of fresh air when we finally arrive at the declamatory melody. Her proficiency in the legato glides effortlessly as if a ballerina. 

Sonically united, Kim-Sutre and violinist/husband Guillaume Sutre take this tulle-infused buoyancy into their luscious performance of the Fantasie in A Major for Violin and Harp. It’s never harsh, even if urgent; never hurried, even if agitated. And at all times, it’s beautiful, so beautiful you dare not breathe lest you interrupt the moment. For the duet alone, owning this album is a must.

Hall-Gate House

Hannah Flowers, harp. Self-released, 2022.

For many years Hannah Flowers dreamed of studying in Ireland. Her wish would be granted when she won a Fulbright Scholarship to Maynooth University to begin work on a masters degree. The year? 2020. That meant that university life, making music with newfound colleagues, exploring and breathing in the Irish culture were not meant to be. Still, she went and made the most of the experience with lessons over Zoom and hour upon hour practicing in isolation to perfect her craft. Hall-Gate House is the result of this time, which Flowers calls an irreplaceable gift. Traditional tunes fill the disc with that unusual quality of joy and wistful longing that permeates the style, particularly in the title track and Bruch Na Carraige Báine where Flowers shares her lovely soprano voice. Guitarist and vocalist Dáithi Sproule joins for Alan Bell’s gorgeous So Here’s to You. •