Review: Aviary is not just for flutists
“This disc presents music that is clever, delightful, and sometimes thought-provoking, all in excellent performances. Not just for flutists.”
This article originally appeared in Issue 49:3 (Jan/Feb 2026) of Fanfare Magazine.
Mostly bird-themed works provide the material for this delightful celebration of things avian via the medium of flute(s) and piccolo.
The disc begins with Gay Kahkonen’s Missouri Adventure for four flutes, the opening “Forest and Sky” seeming to owe a debt to Copland’s famous Fanfare. The second movement, “The River is Wide,” is full of crosscurrents, as it were, between flutes, with the cheekiest of closes. Energy pervades “Missouri Adventure” with a sense of abandon that seems to invoke childhood shapes. Listen carefully, though, and one hears spot-on ensemble. The players have managed to combine this with a palpable sense of vitality in the recording studio: no mean feat. This piece was commissioned as a celebration of Missouri’s statehood bicentennial; the inspiration is that state’s many national parks.
Ensemble trills, so neat and buzzing here, launch Kimberly R. Osberg’s Fowl Play. The first movement has the intriguing tile “Discopeckque.” The music of the whole piece explores exotic chickens (who knew?), four types, one per movement, each capturing the specific type of chicken’s characteristics. “Discopeckque” is expertly written, its complexities minimized through expert performance here to reveal a piece that just puts a smile on one’s face. “Chasing Tail” is more circumspect (or is that “Cicums-peck-t”?), with a nicely varied timbal surface (no missing the “whistling” piccolo). “Featherbrained” is almost a chorale for flutes with a hint of an American folk song about it. Nicely lyrical, this is a most enjoyable 2.5 minutes (including some interesting, gentle, chicken-y effects). “Cock Flight” is a varied finale and is certainly not throw-away. Again the flutists negotiate the territory with expertise. It is with a piece by Osberg that the disc ends, Hoppy Feet for solo flute, a delightful portrait of the Rockhopper penguin, described in the notes as “the world’s smallest—and arguably, most ridiculous—penguin” which is “known as much for its unusual antics as its distinctive plumage.” Osberg honors both the unusual elements but also accords the penguin respect by not overly making fun of it. Effects are done with pomp and ease by Robinson.
I do think more space between tracks would be good: “Cock Flight” goes pretty much straight into Nicole Chamberlain’s Death Whistle. Interestingly, works by Osberg and Chamberlain also featured on the Merian Ensemble’s Navona release Book of Spells (which I reviewed in Fanfare 48:2). Here, we have Chamberlain’s Death Whistle for solo piccolo (Elizabeth Robinson getting a chance to shine alone). Written for the present performer, it is apparently full of inside jokes. Even without being privy to these, it works, full of clever effects in “Ear Knife” before the slower “Ballistophobia” pits blowed notes with more percussive effects. The final “#PiccolOhMyGod” continues the effects but in a more frenzied, yet somehow cheeky fashion. The other Chamberlain piece occurs toward the end of the disc: the flighty Spooklight, which celebrates an urban legend from Joplin, Missouri. It “flirts with the supernatural” according to the notes. It’s basically Halloween fun, and all the better for it. It is also expertly written and perfectly delivered here.
That sudden move from track to track does mean that the sudden arrival of a couple of flutes for Lisa Bost-Sandberg’s Starling after the solo piccolo Death Whistle is a bit sudden. Slowly additive chords change color intriguingly: this is expert writing. The piece celebrates “the beautiful murmurations flocks create.” At just a touch over seven minutes, this is the disc’s space for reflection. There appears to be a bass flute in the equation, nice and throaty.
Ann McKennon’s Flamingo! paints a ground-based ballet of flamingoes with great wit, again for flute ensemble. Another expert, light touch at work from the composer here, and the influence of ballet (Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker to the fore, it seems) is clear.
This disc presents music that is clever, delightful, and sometimes thought-provoking, all in excellent performances. Not just for flutists. Colin Clarke