James Galway has had a long successful career, and he probably has a larger audience than any of the groups and singers we usually write about in Green Man Review. He is even mentioned in the two most important Swedish encyclopædias. In the latest it says he has gained world wide popularity through his broad repertoire and his virtuosity. The earlier one tells of a career including being first flutist in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and playing for the Berlin Philharmonic, one of the best classical orchestras in the world. It also tells of his 18-carat gold flute, a long way from the wooden flutes used in Irish folk music.
And he is a remarkable player, surely one of the best in the world, with, pardon me for using the expression, a golden tone in his flute. His approach is the crystal clear, not the more distorted noisy sound of say, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Galway is capable of playing any classical music written for the flute, and some written for other instruments as well. It is hardly his classical playing that has earned him a reputation among the general public, but rather his flute versions of well known songs and pieces from pop and rock music, especially his 1978 recording of “Annie’s Song” by John Denver.
This two CD collection shows his work in both kinds of music. The first one gives us the classical side of James Galway, with pieces both written for and transcibed for the flute. Except for a concertino for flute and piano by Cecile Chaminade, one of the best pieces on the album, we do not get any complete longer works, just snippets like “Badinerie” from one of Bach’s orchestral suites, the first movement from Vivaldi’s “Spring,” which works better than expected on the flute. Galway gets a chance to show off his technical brilliance on pieces like Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Flight of the Bumblebee,” and his more lyrical side in “Morning” from Grieg’s first Peer Gynt suite.
This first CD could be very useful for teachers introducing their pupils to the world of classical music, or for someone who just wants some short samples of classical pearls to put in his or her CD collection, or as an inspiration for people studying the flute. But I suspect it will mean nothing to people who are really into classical music. They will go for full length versions of the works.
The second CD gives me the creeps. Galway plays 18 popular songs, from the opening “My Heart Will Go On,” through “El Condor Pasa,” “The Girl from Ipanema,” of course “Annie’s Song” and “Danny Boy.” Often he is backed by a full symphony orchestra. The playing is immaculate, the arrangements untouchable, but what is the point of it all? There are intelligent cross overs, where people have interpreted popular music through their classic roots. I can think of one CD in particular where someone has created baroque suites based on Beatles tunes, or classical guitarist Göran Söllscher’s Beatles CD.
But here? Galway just delivers the tunes as they are, no big changes, no re-interpretations, not even lengthy improvised solo passages. These versions add nothing to the original performances, they just give us the songs without the singers and the words, and come to think of it the words are quite an important part of songs like “I Will Always Love You,” “Memory” and “Waltzing Matilda.” Without lyrics they are only 50% of what they should be. At best it could be a CD to sing along to, providing you know the words or have a good song book or two in your home, at worst it is music to be played in supermarkets, elevators and loos, music to be heard but mot listened to.
So we have a double CD with a brilliant flute player, probably one of the best in the world, playing with some of the world’s best orchestras, but delivering something that is totally pointless to anyone who truly loves music. I think I will go out and look for a CD of Galway playing complete concertos for flute and orchestra instead. Hope there are some available
(Sony BMG, 2006)
