Solo Flutist Stone Intrigues With Stockhausen Works

Jumping the gun on the openings of its mainstage series Oct. 10 and 12, Southwest Chamber Music Society began a third year of “Soliloquy” events with an intriguing recital by flutist Dorothy Stone.

The highly accomplished musician had originally planned to play the entire works for solo flute by Karlheinz Stockhausen. But that could have occupied three programs, so on Sunday afternoon at the Armory Center for the Arts in Old Town Pasadena, Stone played five works by the 20th century master, all but one U.S. premieres.

It was an agenda that displayed the virtuosic soloist’s musical resources and the prolific composer’s wondrous imagination. Their interest centered on variety, fluency and the writer’s endless invention. Solo recitals can be bland; this one demanded attention.

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Playing the standard instrument as well as alto flute (in “Susan’s Echo”) and piccolo (in “Entfuhrung”), Stone, who is also an award-winning composer, met all the technical challenges upfront and followed Stockhausen’s staging instructions.

For “Flautina,” named for a character Stockhausen called “a flute spirit in human costume,” she wore a flute quiver. For other works, she changed gowns, then added a cape, a hat and white gloves and traversed the room meaningfully.

She also performed, as the composer demands and as was indicated in Stockhausen’s program notes: “kissing noises . . . key slapping, tongue clicks, sighing, spitting noises, voiceless whistling . . . wind tremolos, key clatter and whispered numbers.” Yet compositional cohesion is never lost--at least it was not lost in this selective program, which worked most effectively in the airy lightness of the armory.