MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : Galway Masterly in Program of Sonatas

All performing musicians aspire to the condition of James Galway: He has a technical mastery so complete that it makes everything look easy.

That this facility didn’t lead to emotional detachment or casualness in the Irish flutist’s playing, as it can with some superstar soloists, was the joy of his Thursday night recital at Ambassador Auditorium, featuring sonatas by Bach and Handel.

Thus, in many ways, this was an illuminating event, not least in how it revealed, in microcosm, the differences in these two composers. Next to Handel’s endlessly tuneful and directly expressive pieces, Bach’s sounded craggy and cerebral indeed; they were difficult listening, even.

Galway’s performances contributed to that impression. In Bach’s complicated sonatas in B minor and E minor (BWV 1030 and 1034) and the only slightly less calculated sonatas in E and C (BWV 1035 and 1033), Galway’s effortless execution allowed him to press the case, as it were, keeping the notes coming in a remarkably even, strongly projected current: It was the relentless unwinding of a tautly wound spring, music as process.

Harpsichordist Phillip Moll and viola da gambist Sarah Cunningham supported amiably and pointedly. Galway ornamented gracefully. Throughout, in his warmly limned phrasing of the slow movements and virtuosic dispatch of the quick ones, Galway’s breathing impressed with its calm and unobtrusiveness.

The program notes (quite helpful) made a gallant but seemingly unnecessary defense of Galway playing this music on a modern flute. No one in their right mind, or ear, could object to such committed, insightful and lovable performances.