After decades of performing in many of New England’s most notable symphony orchestras as soloist and section member, performing in and directing various chamber music groups and concert series, serving as educator and mentor for many now accomplished flutists, conducting master classes and directing flute choirs, Linda Bento-Rei’s versatility and passion for fresh and diverse projects lead her to record her first album entitled The Jongen Project, released in 2014, which contains the music of Belgian composer, organist and educator, Joseph Jongen (1873-1953). Following a series of acclaimed chamber music concerts which included Jongen’s, “Concert a Cinq” with the principal string players and retired principal harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bento-Rei was inspired to record Jongen’s relatively unknown music. A deep passion was born. After researching the composer, a number of pieces which include flute in solo and chamber music settings were unearthed. Her profound connection to Jongen’s music is brilliantly expressed in this extraordinary and masterful recording.

“The Jongen recording is just beautiful. Your playing throughout the CD is just beautiful and a pleasure to listen to. I wish all CD’s were this inspiring." - Sir James Galway

"I believe your performance in The Jongen Project is very elegant, refined into every detail and you play it in a beautiful intimate way. It sounds very natural and with a lot of "joie de vivre" - Robert Waelkens

Bento-Rei released her second CD, Invocation, in 2015, which is an eclectic chamber music collaboration containing the music of Peter Schickele, Andre Jolivet, Leos Janacek and Mike Mower. In 2016, she released Noel~ Reinvented Holiday Classics. This is a duo collaborative with Boston Symphony Orchestra Pianist, Vytas J. Baksys of traditional holiday tunes rearranged by composer, Robert Nieske.

“Invocation is an absolutely outstanding recording, which I will replay many times. The excellences one looks for in flute playing are here - Ms. Bento-Rei’s intonation is impeccable, as is her articulation. There are passages of dazzling virtuosity, especially in the Schickele. And there are other virtues present which are beyond the expected. Her tone in strong passages is rich and full while in softer passages, especially in the Janacek, has a nice delicacy. Her playing has, when she needs it, quite an extraordinary authority. And none of this comes at a price: there are, to my ear, no moments of compromise, no places where, for example, emotion is sacrificed for mechanical precision, or sound for speed. The playing throughout has great integrity: all its virtues are in the service of a larger musicality.”  – Harry Schroeder, Key West Citizen

“Noel~Reinvented Holiday Classics” is the third CD recorded by flutist Linda M. Bento-Rei and pianist Vytas J. Baksys, and consists of arrangements by jazz composer, teacher, and performer Robert Nieske. The recording’s seven selections utilize multiple styles and strike a balance between the contemplative and extroverted aspects of Advent and Christmas. The playing of Bento-Rei and Baksys is beyond reproach, with admirable unity of articulation and phrasing. Their handsome performances are what win the day. This is a multi-faceted, well-played, and elegantly engineered Yuletide collection. – Geoff Wieting, Boston Musical Intelligencer

In 2020, Bento-Rei and Vytas J. Baksys will release a duo collaboration entitled Un-Known, containing the repertoire of obscure and under - performed 21st century composers including a commissioned and world premiered “Sonata for Flute and Piano”, written by Robert Nieske, and a chamber music collaborative entitled Radically Traditional, which contains the music of Astor Piazzolla, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Andy Scott. All CD’s have been recorded at WGBH, Fraser Performance Studio in Boston by master engineer Antonio Oliart.

Bento-Rei has served as principal flutist with the Venice Symphony Orchestra (FL) since 2014. She also frequently performs with other Florida and New England orchestras. In addition to her recording and orchestral careers, Bento-Rei and her husband co-founded the non-profit chamber music organization, Sarasota Musica Viva in which Bento-Rei serves as Artistic Director and performer. Since 2015, she has organized and presented over fifty chamber music programs throughout the west coast of Florida and New England featuring nationally acclaimed, local and guest musicians.

Bento-Rei received a Bachelor of Music, cum laude from the Boston Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in Performance as a Merit Scholar from the New England Conservatory of Music.

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Please email Linda Bento-Rei at lmbrei@gmail.com to purchase a CD. Also available at Amazon.com.

Sunday, September 22, 2013 3 PM "The Jongen Project" - POSTPONED TO 1.5.14

Jordan Hall

30 Gainsborough Street

Boston, MA

Thursday, October 3, 2013 8 PM Chamber Music with Ann Pilot

The Brooks Concert Hall

College of The Holy Cross

1 College Street

Worcester, MA

Sunday, January 5, 2014 "The Jongen Project"

Brown Hall

30 Gainsborough Street

Boston, MA

Available for solo and chamber music concerts. Please contact Linda Bento-Rei for booking arrangements. lmbrei@gmail.com

  "What a super, super show of physical endurance. Your playing was out of this world" - Eileen Fox

     "Just wanted to say congrats on a terrific performance today- very inspiring!!  Glad to be there!" - Sue Almy

     "It was a pleasure to work with you and be a part of the Invocation recording project. One doesn't get the chance to play the Jolivet every day and you sounded terrific!" - Miguel Perez-Espejo

    "I love watching you play. Every breath, every note. You are incredible"  - Barbara Gokey

     "You & Vytas, …. WOW! …. What a perfect duo and great accompanist to perform together. … Congratulations on the new CD!" - Jim Tomasetti

Sunday, September 22, 2013 at 3 PM Postponed to January 5, 2014 at 3 PM at BROWN HALL

New England Conservatory

30 Gainsborough Street

Boston, MA

Please visit our biographies.

Pianist Vytas J. Baksys is an active free-lance collaborator performing a variety of recitals, competitions, and other functions of various styles and genres throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Since 1989 he has been the faculty pianist with the Fellowship Conducting Program at Tanglewood, a frequent keyboardist with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras, and works with other area ensembles such as the Concord Chamber Music Society, The Rivers School Conservatory, Boston Musica Viva, Boston Secession, and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. Of Lithuanian descent, Vytas is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and State University of New York at Stony Brook. His principal teachers include Angel Ramon Rivera, Victor Rosenbaum, and Gilbert Kalish. He has participated in recordings for RCA, CRI, Golden Crest, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Brothers, Nonsuch, Reference Recordings, and BSO Classics labels.

Vytas is a performing artist on "The Jongen Project" CD in Sonata for flute and piano, Rhapsodie and Danse Lente and on the "Spring Serenade" CD in Spring Serenade by Peter Schickele.

The Jongen Project/Linda Bento-Rei: CD Review

Jun 1, 2015 by The Flute View

Linda Bento-Rei has recorded a fascinating CD of chamber works for flute by the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen (1873-1953).  While not as well known today, Jongen was one of the best known Belgian composers of the early 20th century.  His music is conservative for the time, influenced by late 19th century French tradition, although his music was later influenced by newer music including Stravinsky and the composer’s of “Les Six."

There are three large chamber pieces for flute on the recording: the Concert a Cinq for harp, flute and strings, Opus 71, the Sonata for flute and piano, Op. 77 and the Rhapsodie, for piano and wind quintet, Op.70.  These three works were all written between 1922 and 1924.  They are beautifully crafted works with singing, soaring flute lines and interesting harmonic choices as the composer starts to absorb the radical changes in musical language going on at the time the pieces were written.

Bento-Rei has put together an excellent group of chamber collaborators and she plays each piece with superb tone, rhythm and musicality.  It’s a pleasure to listen to this lovely CD, and it’s a great opportunity to get familiar with Jongen’s music and perhaps add a piece or two to one’s flute repertoire!!

The CD is beautifully packaged, from the gorgeous cover art using a painting- La Pointe du Rossignol by Theo van Rysselgerghe (1904) to the thoughtful and extensive program notes on the music, composer, and performing artists. The CD is very thoughtfully put together and beautifully played.

--Barbara Siesel

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Netherlands Flute Society

The Jongen Project. Music of Joseph Jongen (1873-1953). Linda Bento-Rei fluit. Concert à Cinq op. 71, Sonate pour flûte et piano op. 77, Rhapsodie voor fluit, hobo, klarinet, fagot, hoorn en piano op. 70, Danse Lente pour flûte et piano op. 56. Opname in beheer van het Worcester Symphony Orchestra 2013.

Deze Amerikaanse cd omvat werkelijk een ‘project’: alleen kamermuziekwerken met fluit van de Belgische componist Joseph Jongen. Jongen heeft van veel kanten invloeden ondergaan: Belgische, Duitse en Franse (Debussy en Ravel!), wat zijn muziek een geheel eigen karakter geeft. Zelfs Stravinsky en de ‘Six’ zijn te horen in sommige speelse gedeelten. De drie grote werken op de cd zijn ontstaan tussen 1922 en 1924, deDanse Lente in 1918 in Engeland, waar hij naartoe gevlucht was vanwege de Eerste Wereldoorlog. De uitvoering van deze toch wel gecompliceerde muziek is heel mooi, alle uitvoerenden zitten op één lijn met hun expressie en klankkleuren. De fluit is niet zozeer het solo-instrument, maar meer ‘one of the guys’, met een warme persoonlijke toon, die zich snel kan aanpassen aan de muzikale omgeving. Hoewel er iets voor te zeggen zou zijn om Joseph Jongen als een meer Frans-georiënteerde componist te beschouwen (de Sonate is opgedragen aan René Le Roy), laten deze Amerikanen horen dat ze zich historisch goed geïnformeerd hebben.

The Jongen Project. Music of Joseph Jongen (1873-1953). Linda Bento-Rei flute. Concert à Cinq op. 71, Sonate pour flûte et piano op. 77, Rhapsodie for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn and piano op. 70, Danse Lente pour flûte et piano op. 56. Recording under the management of the Worcester Symphony Orchestra 2013.

This American cd is  really a project: only chamber music pieces including the flute, by the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen. Jongen was influenced a lot from many sides: Belgian, German and French (Debussy and Ravel!) which results in a music with a completely particular character. One can even hear Stravinsky and the ‘Six’ in some of the playful movements. The three main works on the cd date from 1922 to 1924, the Danse Lente from 1918 in England, to where he was escaped because of World War I. The performance of this rather complicated music is very beautiful. All performers are one with their expression and color of sound. The flute is more ‘one of the guys’ than a solo-instrument, with a warm personal tone which adepts to the musical environment. One could say that Joseph Jongen is a more French-orientated

Composer (the Sonate is dedicated to René Le Roy) but one can hear that these Americans are historically well informed. 

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To purchase a CD online through Paypal please send $20 plus $5 shipping to steverei@gmail.com. Please email lmbrei@gmail.com with your shipping address.

To purchase a CD using a major credit card please email lmbrei@gmail.com.

Also available at Amazon.com

Released on October 15, 2015  and available for sale on Amazon.com

Here are some reviews -

Geoff Wieting, Boston Music Intelligencer:

Recordings
The superb flutist Linda Bento-Rei’s newest CD, titled “Invocation”, brings together a wonderfully diverse set of 20th- and 21st-century chamber works. As central performer, Bento-Rei demonstrates a versatility that is nothing short of astounding, and her colleagues are of equal caliber. Lovers of classical, jazz, and Latin music–of many styles!–will find a great deal to enjoy in these virtually definitive performances. 

This CD consists of works by four composers ranging from a wide variety of styles and instrumentations. For flute and piano, there is Peter Schickele, Spring Serenade, writing under his own name; for wind sextet, Leos Janacek, Mladi; for flute, string trio and harp, Andre Olivet, Chant de Linos and for flute and salsa rhythm section, Mike Mower, Sonata Latino. 

The most striking observation of this CD is the ensemble work, which is exemplary and flawless throughout. Special mention must be made of the extraordinary playing of pianist Vytas Baksys, which is accurately supportive in the Schickele and rhythmically authentic in the complex salsa underpinnings of the Mower.

This is an absolutely outstanding recording. The excellences one looks for in flute playing are here. Ms. Bento-Rei’s intonation is impeccable, as is her articulation. She performs passages of dazzling virtuosity, especially in the Schickele, in addition to other virtues which are beyond the expected. Her flute sound in strong passages is as rich and full as I’ve heard on that instrument, while in softer passages, especially in the Janacek, it has a beautiful delicacy. Her playing has, when necessary, a quite extraordinary authority, often of a degree which one more commonly finds in a lead trumpet. And none of this comes at a price: there are, to my ear, no moments of compromise, no places where, for example, emotion is sacrificed for mechanical precision, or sound for speed. The playing throughout has great integrity: all its virtues are in the service of a larger musicality.

The most unique and enjoyable piece, for me is the Mower. Here the flute is the single voice, supported by piano, bass, drums, and three Latin percussionists, all of whom are outstanding players. In this music the complex rhythmic base is crucial: these players got it right, and the flute riding over the top of it is an ongoing lifting of the spirit. There is one passage (at about 3:40 of the “Rumbango”) which is irresistible. This is a performance by a flutist who has mastered her instrument and is having quite a wonderful time with that. 

 - Harry Schroeder, Music Critic, Solares Hill Newspaper, The Key West Citizen

"I was enchanted with your "Invocation" CD and loaned it to a student. I believe it greatly influenced her tone…she sounds so much more free and fluid after living with Your CD...." - Teresa Texeira flutist/teacher

From Mike Mower -

Hi Linda,

I've just checked out your album, which arrived this morning, and… congratulations! I've heard over fifty recordings of Sonata Latino, and I think your rendition is probably the best...

I't's great when musicians really "get" a piece and play it in the sprit intended. Your articulation, timing, sense of drama and an un-sentimental rendition are perfect for this genre - but it's not just you! Please send my congratulations also to Vytas (especially), Fernando and the guys - you've picked a team that obviously do this stuff naturally all the time and are not "classical musicians playing at jazz" (sorry if that sounds patronising!), a rare treat to listen to.

It's a nicely produced CD too - a great mixed sound, elegant cover, liner notes - and a "single" release as well! I particularly enjoyed listening for the first time to the Janacek too (it makes for a much more beefy sound to a wind quintet by adding bass clarinet). The Jolivet provides a welcome tonal contrast too - all beautifully played by your hand-picked ensembles. I think it's an album you can really be proud of, highlighting not just your personal playing but terrific ensembling and a great diversity of music making the whole CD very listenable from start to finish. Well done!

Best wishes,

Mike

Brooks Concert Hall

Sunday, January 5, 2014 at 3 PM "The Jongen Project" at Brown Hall

New England Conservatory

30 Gainsborough Street

Boston, MA

Admission is FREE!

Linda Bento-Rei, shown playing the flute in her Worcester home, just released her first CD, "The Jongen Project." (T&G STAFF/CHRISTINE PETERSON)

Friday, January 10, 2014
 

Worcester flutist's CD revives works of little-known composer

 

 

 

 

When Worcester flutist Linda Bento-Rei was at a flutist's convention in Washington, D.C., a few years ago, she wasn't particularly enthused with a suggestion that she attend a concert featuring Concert à Cinq by Belgian composer Joseph Jongen. 

For one thing, who was/is he? 

"A friend of mine dragged me to the concert," Bento-Rei recalled. "I wanted to go to another concert." 

She soon changed her tune. 

The performance of the work — for flute, string trio and harp — by Arpea Ensemble was "magical," she said. The music was a revelation. 

"It was incredible, it was so intense." 

There were about 200 flute players in the audience, who can be a tough crowd on such occasions, Bento-Rei noted. By the end of the performance, "There wasn't a dry eye." 

Bento-Rei wasn't familiar with the work of Jongen (1873-1953), a composer, organist and educator who, while well-regarded in his time, has slipped into obscurity. 

"Not at all," she said. 

She is much better versed now. Bento-Rei's first CD, "The Jongen Project," has just been released consisting of four of Jongen's chamber music compositions for flute and other instruments including Concert à Cinq. A CD release concert was performed Jan. 5 in Brown Hall at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where Bento-Rei earned a master of music degree in flute performance. 

"Obviously, I'm having a love affair with his music," Bento-Rei said of Jongen. Being "dragged" to that concert "created a whole chain of serendipitous events. I would never have considered a recording project." 

Jongen's music has been termed as "civilized yet sensual." A description of Concert à Cinq once called the first movement "shot through with sunlight," the slow second movement "pensive," and the final movement evocative of a Spanish rhapsody. 

Bento-Rei had been so impressed she bought the score and "put it on my project list." 

There it sat for a while. However, when her mother became gravely ill with Alzheimer's disease (Margaret "Mary" Bento died in December 2010) Bento-Rei said she was looking for "a distraction." She looked at her project list and remembered how deeply emotional and rich Jongen's music had struck her. 

"It just seemed to be the perfect conduit to let go all the grief. The perfect music." 

Bento-Rei gathered an ensemble of accomplished musicians and put on several concerts of Concert à Cinq, including one at Clark University. 

Next, "I thought it was worthy of recording. There aren't many recordings of it," Bento-Rei said. She also began exploring other Jongen compositions and found the same elements were true — beautiful music rarely performed or recorded for posterity. These included Sonata, for flute and piano ("no one knows about it," Bento-Rei said); Rhapsodie, for piano and wind quintet ("a series of varied tempos and moods"); and Dense lente, for flute and piano ("a brief lyrical work, pensive and quietly sustained"). 

The four compositions make up "The Jongen Project" CD. Recording spanned over a year at the Fraser Performance Studio, WGBH, Boston, and involved 13 musicians. 

Bento-Rei grew up in Milford, where her discovery of the flute was rather like her introduction to Jongen — somewhat by chance. 

At school, "I did not sign up for band when everyone else did," she recalled. However, all of her friends did sign up, and Bento-Rei was missing their company. 

"So I went to the band director and said 'I need to catch up. Give me an instrument that's easy to play.' " 

The band director suggested the flute, which isn't easy to play. But the director's choice proved to be inspired, although Bento-Rei may not have thought so at first. As she began to practice, she said she thought "Oh my God, this is endless. It will take me 10 lifetimes to learn how to play." 

Bento-Rei also graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music, performs as a soloist and in chamber music and orchestral performances and teaches music. She and her husband, Stephen Rei, an attorney, lived several years in Hopedale before moving to Worcester, where their joint project has been restoring an early 20th-century home. 

At least one encyclopedia of classical music doesn't mention Jongen at all. Maybe "The Jongen Project" will remedy that and restore his reputation. 

But notwithstanding the emotional reaction to the Concert à Cinq concert, Jongen's music can be challenging, "difficult" even, Bento-Rei acknowledged, 

"Difficult, then if you take the time, it's addictive," she added. Besides which, "It's all so fresh," she said. "Jongen's music is relatively unknown, absolutely gorgeous, richly emotional, under-performed and hardly recorded. So the entire CD/program is completely fresh." 

At the Jan. 5 CD release concert, which was attended by more than 100 people, "The audience was so mesmerized," Bento-Rei said. 

"Now I'm putting the CD in the hands of lay people and getting their feedback…Obviously I'm not anticipating making a lot of money out of the project. But the idea of legacy is very important to me. And I'm getting feedback that people are liking it." 

For more information and to purchase "The Jongen Project" CD, visit www.lindabento-rei.com. 

Contact Richard Duckett at Richard.Duckett@telegram.com 

"Dear Linda, The Jongen recording is just beautiful. Your playing throughout the CD is just beautiful and a pleasure to listen to. I wish all CD’s were this inspiring." - Sir James Galway

in: reviews

JANUARY 7, 2014

Injustice Overturned for Jongen

by Geoffrey Wieting

It is a delicious feeling to be “in the know” when few others are. I had that feeling momentarily at “The Jongen Project” CD Release Concert at New England Conservatory’s Brown Hall Sunday afternoon. In her introductory remarks, oboist Andrea Bonsignore stated that in her 40 years as a professional musician she had never encountered the music of the once world-renowned Belgian composer Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) until this recording and concert were planned. I wanted to reply that most organists have played or at least heard his superb organ works (as an organist myself, I count him among my favorite composers to perform) though nearly all of us remain in the dark when it comes to his works in other genres.

The concert opened with Jongen’s Élégie, scored for a quartet of flutes, played by Linda Bento-Rei, Aiven O’Leary, Marjorie Hogan, and Katie Farrington. Within a comparatively narrow pitch range and using four instruments of the same timbre, the composer found an impressive array of textures and colors, helped, of course, by the imaginative playing of the quartet. It began with solo flute Bento-Rei spinning out a melody of longing memory over a pulsating accompaniment that later became an impressionistic undulating. Occasionally, phrase attacks were also a bit “impressionistic” as well; a bit of “conducting” by one of the quartet members would not have gone amiss here. Eventually, the texture was simplified into pairs of flutes alternating with each other. There were sighing figures and the kaleidoscopic harmonies that I associate with many of Jongen’s organ works. This gentle elegy made an unconventional but touching beginning to the concert.

Jongen’s Sonata for Flute and Piano of 1924 is a four-movement, half-hour masterwork that seems a good deal shorter. Bento-Rei and pianist Vytas Baksys, encountering a musical smorgasbord, shared it liberally. The first movement Prélude, opening with bracing octaves and chords in the piano, was by turns dramatic, rhapsodic, lyrical, and reflective. The Animé scherzo is largely an effervescent staccato showpiece (though not without a few sustained passages) that impressed and charmed. The third movement, Modéré, begins with a spare texture of two voices in the piano, much in the mode of Maurice Ravel’s late style dépouillé (stripped-down style), but when the flute enters, the harmony becomes more colorful. Especially striking was a piano interlude reminiscent of Claude Debussy’s piano prelude “The Engulfed Cathedral” which depicts a cathedral rising out of the ocean; here Bento-Rei added interjections evoking seabirds. The movement concludes with a moving return to the spare opening texture, this time including the flute. The final Gigue begins with yet another piano solo, Baksys setting the brilliant jig rhythm. Bento-Rei’s entrance, however, temporarily subverted this with a showy cadenza completely free of metrical constraints; soon enough, though, the flute joins the piano in the jig. Yet even in this breathless dance, the composer inserts some duple-meter passages of lyrical beauty. The artists made the most of these contrasts on the way to the brilliant ending; a final fragment of the jig subject provided an exclamation point. This sonata by rights should take its place in the standard flute repertoire alongside the works of Carl Reinecke, Gabriel Fauré, Francis Poulenc, and Serge Prokofiev.

The Rhapsodie (1922) for woodwind quintet and piano was the program’s pièce de résistance. Bento-Rei and Baksys were joined by oboist Andrea Bonsignore, clarinetist Catherine Hudgins, bassoonist Patricia Yee, and hornist Nick Rubenstein. The players’ sense of fantasy and adventure made this delicious. To cite one example, a kind of Moorish habanera early on, played initially by the upper winds and piano and then the whole ensemble created an exotic atmosphere, having both unanimity of ensemble and flexible rhythm. The only slight distraction was from a few brief dominations of the texture by the over-exuberant horn. Generally, though, the give-and-take was very satisfying. After its numerous opportunities—fully exploited by all the players—to display musical and technical skill, the work seemed to trail off drowsily to a peaceful ending until the ensemble surprised us with one last eruption of jubilation. Jongen’s Rhapsodie, performed at this high level, could hardly fail to find an audience among music-lovers of all stripes.

If I were arranging this program, the Rhapsodie would come last because all else would be anti-climactic. But the program finished as unconventionally as it began—with the Danse lente for flute and piano. Though composed in 1918 and characterized by a steady triple meter, “Slow Dance” didn’t feel like a dance or the elegy for war-torn Europe one might expect; rather, it had a touching, bittersweet nostalgia that the simple, direct playing of Bento-Rei and Baksys underlined. So we went out with a lovely whimper, not a bang, introduced to another elegant, contemplative flute work somewhat in the manner of Fauré’s Morceau de concours, if less sunny.

As Bonsignore noted at the outset, it is baffling that some outstanding composers can fall into virtual oblivion in just a few decades. However, for a performing musician the pleasure of holding a “secret” of this type is not to keep it but to share it with a wider public, to unearth “buried treasures.” I would guess this was the major motivation for the performers at this concert, and they took pains to prepare a beautiful performance. Let us hope that this concert as well as the new CD by these artists will begin to correct the injustice of Joseph Jongen’s neglect outside of the organ world.

Geoffrey Wieting holds Bachelor’s degrees in organ and Latin from Oberlin College and a Master’s degree in collaborative piano from New England Conservatory. He is a freelance organist, collaborative pianist and vocal coach. He sings with the Back Bay Chorale and serves on the Board of Directors of the Old West Organ Society.

Friday, April 25, 2014 at 7:30 PM - Duo concert with Vytas Baksys.

Program includes:

Sonata in G Minor, CPE Bach

Sonata Latino, Mike Mower

Sonata, Joseph Jongen

Spring Serenade, Peter Schickele

Danse Lente, Joseph Jongen

5615 Midnight Pass Rd, Sarasota, FL 34242
(941) 349-5616

Friday, October 24, 2014

'Jongen Project' in race for Grammy nod

By Richard Duckett TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

richard.duckett@telegram.com

"The Jongen Project — The Music of Joseph Jongen," a CD by Worcester flutist Linda Bento-Rei, has been submitted to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for Grammy consideration. 

Votes are being cast this week for the semi-finalists who will be nominated for a Grammy Award. Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) was a Belgian a composer, organist and educator who, while well-regarded in his time, slipped into obscurity. Bento-Rei was inspired to make her recording after attending a performance of one his works.

"It was incredible, it was so intense," she recalled during an interview earlier this year. 

"The Jongen Project" consists of four of Jongen's chamber music compositions for flute and other instruments. 

Recording spanned over a year at the Fraser Performance Studio, WGBH, Boston, and involved 13 musicians. 

Contact Richard Duckett at Richard.Duckett@telegram.com 

"The Jongen Project" Music of Joseph Jongen and "Invocation"can now be heard on WUSF Public Media Tampa, WSMR Sarasota and AMI Radio Anna Maria Island, Florida. Listen on WSMR 89.1 FM, 103.1 FM and 1700 AM

The Jongen Project. Music of Joseph Jongen (1873-1953). Linda Bento-Rei fluit. Concert à Cinq op. 71, Sonate pour flûte et piano op. 77, Rhapsodie voor fluit, hobo, klarinet, fagot, hoorn en piano op. 70, Danse Lente pour flûte et piano op. 56. Opname in beheer van het Worcester Symphony Orchestra 2013.

Deze Amerikaanse cd omvat werkelijk een ‘project’: alleen kamermuziekwerken met fluit van de Belgische componist Joseph Jongen. Jongen heeft van veel kanten invloeden ondergaan: Belgische, Duitse en Franse (Debussy en Ravel!), wat zijn muziek een geheel eigen karakter geeft. Zelfs Stravinsky en de ‘Six’ zijn te horen in sommige speelse gedeelten. De drie grote werken op de cd zijn ontstaan tussen 1922 en 1924, deDanse Lente in 1918 in Engeland, waar hij naartoe gevlucht was vanwege de Eerste Wereldoorlog. De uitvoering van deze toch wel gecompliceerde muziek is heel mooi, alle uitvoerenden zitten op één lijn met hun expressie en klankkleuren. De fluit is niet zozeer het solo-instrument, maar meer ‘one of the guys’, met een warme persoonlijke toon, die zich snel kan aanpassen aan de muzikale omgeving. Hoewel er iets voor te zeggen zou zijn om Joseph Jongen als een meer Frans-georiënteerde componist te beschouwen (de Sonate is opgedragen aan René Le Roy), laten deze Amerikanen horen dat ze zich historisch goed geïnformeerd hebben.

The Jongen Project. Music of Joseph Jongen (1873-1953). Linda Bento-Rei flute. Concert à Cinq op. 71, Sonate pour flûte et piano op. 77, Rhapsodie for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn and piano op. 70, Danse Lente pour flûte et piano op. 56. Recording under the management of the Worcester Symphony Orchestra 2013.

This American cd is  really a project: only chamber music pieces including the flute, by the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen. Jongen was influenced a lot from many sides: Belgian, German and French (Debussy and Ravel!) which results in a music with a completely particular character. One can even hear Stravinsky and the ‘Six’ in some of the playful movements. The three main works on the cd date from 1922 to 1924, the Danse Lente from 1918 in England, to where he was escaped because of World War I. The performance of this rather complicated music is very beautiful. All performers are one with their expression and color of sound. The flute is more ‘one of the guys’ than a solo-instrument, with a warm personal tone which adepts to the musical environment. One could say that Joseph Jongen is a more French-orientated

Composer (the Sonate is dedicated to René Le Roy) but one can hear that these Americans are historically well informed. 

A soulful discovery for the flute

Flutist Linda Bento-Rei clearly remembers the first time she encountered a composition by Belgian composer Joseph Jongen.

It was a small concert, with an audience of only about 100 people, and when Concert a Cinq, Op. 71, composed in 1923, was played, "everyone wept," said Bento-Rei. "I put it on my bucket list, and when my mother was dying, I decided I wanted to learn this piece and perform it."

She collaborated with Ann Hobson Pilot, the renowned principal harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (who has since retired and also lives in Sarasota), and with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and they played the concerto "three times over the period of time my mother was leaving this planet. That was the beginning of the love affair."

As she began studying Jongen (1873-1953),who might be best known for his organ compositions, she found that he had composed several pieces for flute. In 2013, she released "The Jongen Project: Music of Joseph Jongen."

Flutist Linda Bento-Rei / COURTESY PHOTO

Sunday evening, she'll perform two Jongen works, Danse Lente op. 56b, and Sonata, in the second half of a concert she's giving, with BSO pianist Vytas J. Baksys, at St. Boniface Episcopal Church.

Bento-Rei moved with her husband to Osprey about a year ago from Massachusetts, where she had played "in all the little and not so little orchestras" after completing her studies at the Boston Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2005 she and her husband, an attorney and real estate broker, became president and vice president of the Worcester Symphony Orchestra, which sponsored her two recordings (the second, "Invocation" will be released next month).

Their move to Southwest Florida came out of a desire to "begin a new life."

"We sold our home in Massachusetts that we spent 10 years renovating. That was a difficult decision," she said.

The cultural scene here proved irresistible.

"It's amazing how quickly we established ourselves," she said. "It's hard to uproot and re-establish as a musician."

She played a concert with the principal string players of the Venice Symphony and subsequently accepted the position of principal flute. 

Tonight's concert includes Mozart's Andante in C Major, K. 315; Ernest Bloch's Suite Modale; Francis Poulenc's Sonata; and the two Jongen works.

Danse lente was originally written for flute and harp, but translated for piano by Baksys.

"It's soulful and otherworldly music," she said. "It's kind of a portal to the other side. It's like nothing I've ever heard or played."

CONCERT PREVIEW

MUSIC FOR FLUTE AND PIANO
Linda Bento-Rei, flute, and Vytas Baksys, piano. 6 p.m. Sept. 13, St. Boniface Episcopal Church, 5615 Midnight Pass Road, Siesta Key. Free; freewill offering. 349-5616; www.bonifacechurch.org

CONCERT PREVIEW
MUSIC FOR FLUTE AND PIANO Linda Bento-Rei, flute, and Vytas Baksys, piano. 6 p.m. Sept. 13, St. Boniface Epicopal Church, 5615 Midnight Pass Road, Siesta Key. Free; freewill offering. 349-5616; www.bonifacechurch.org

SUSAN RIFE

Susan Rife is the arts and books editor for the Herald-Tribune Media Group. She holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She can be reached by emailor call (941) 361-4930. Make sure to "Like" Arts Sarasota on Facebook for news and reviews of the arts.

♦ Monday, March 9, 2015 at 2 PM, Venice, FL in collaboration with the Venice Symphony String Quartet

♦ Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 2 PM, Players School of Music, Clearwater, FL - Concert and Master Class

♦ Suday, March 15, 2015 at 2 PM, Church of the Holy Spirit, Osprey, FL 

♦ Friday, March 27, 2015, 8 PM, Sarasota, FL

♦ Friday, April 10, 2015, 7:30 PM, First Congregational Church, 1031 Euclid Ave., Sarasota, Florida

♦ Friday, August 28, 2015 at 4:30 PM Sarasota Garden Club with Dean Anderson and Tihda Vonkoth

♦ Thursday,September 3, 2015 at 6:00 PM Chart House Restaurant Concert with Sean O'Neil and Luisa Bustamente

♦ Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 6:00 PM St. Boniface Church, Siesta Key with Vytas Baksys

♦ Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 3:00 PM Friends of Artists Series, Sarasota with Vytas Baksys

CD Review by Geoff Wieting, Boston Music Intelligencer

It is a conundrum of classical music that certain composers of indisputable talent, whose posthumous fame should be assured, can nonetheless be forgotten owing to changing fashions. The most famous example, of course, is the greatest of composers, Johann Sebastian Bach himself. Though Bach and some others (e.g., Charles-Valentin Alkan) have enjoyed rediscovery, still others are not yet so fortunate. With the sole exception of his organ music, the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) falls into the latter category. The Jongen Project, a group of accomplished instrumentalists headed by flutist Linda Bento-Rei, has taken an important step in correcting this injustice by recording an all-Jongen CD which includes four beautiful chamber works. Conservative for their time, the Belgian's works are very “audience-friendly,” showing the influence of his countryman, César Franck, and, especially, Claude Debussy, though Jongen's musical language is consistently distinctive. 

Written in 1923, the Concert à cinq, Op. 71, is scored for harp, flute, and string trio, and shows the unmistakable influence of French impressionism. Though they are largely orchestral musicians, the players demonstrate outstanding chamber music skills. In addition to Bento-Rei, violinist Jason Horowitz, violist Rebecca Gitter, cellist Blaise Déjardin (all current members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's string section), and retired BSO principal harpist Ann Hobson Pilot all collaborate and interact with the flexibility, grace, and seamlessness of a seasoned ensemble. The largely extroverted first movement, played persuasively here, contrasts starkly with the second. Placed at the center of the larger work, the second movement's penitential tune, modal and bittersweet, is one of Jongen's exceptional creations, and the artists play it affectingly. The third and final movement's Spanish flavor and luscious harmonic vocabulary are also hallmarks of the French impressionists, but in the unexpected final bare-octaves chord where Debussy and Ravel would likely have signed off with harmony, Jongen stakes out his own territory. Yet amidst all the preceding gorgeous colors of the movement, the players' insistent rhythm, like castanets, pulls the listener along irresistibly. This enchanting work would make a fine program companion for Debussy's Sonata for flute, viola, and harp, Ravel's Introduction et Allegro, and André Jolivet's Chant de Linos—the last, in its later version, scored for Jongen's exact instrumentation.

 The four-movement, 30-minute Sonata for flute and piano, Op. 77, is a major rediscovery for the flute repertoire. Though its Gallic provenance is evident, it yet retains a savor unique to Jongen. Linda Bento-Rei and pianist Vytas Baksys are expert tour guides through the many landscapes of the first movement: powerfully dramatic, playful, singing, and mysterious. The second movement is a brilliant scherzo-étude with delicious staccato passages offset by silky legato themes; in these performers' highly capable hands it is a thrilling and delicious experience. The third movement would seem to be Jongen's tip of the hat to both Ravel and Debussy. The outer sections are spare in texture—very much in Ravel's late style dépouillé (stripped-down); the central section bears more than a passing resemblance to Debussy's piano prelude The Sunken Cathedral, based on a Breton legend of a submerged cathedral that rises out of the sea once a year only to sink below the waves again. To the swirling waters and iridescent colors Baksys summons up, Bento-Rei adds flute interjections evoking seabirds soaring around the great edifice. After these sumptuous harmonies, the return to the simplicity of the movement's opening is genuinely moving. The final movement is an exhilarating jig which also regularly superimposes lyrical writing for both instruments over the compelling dance rhythm. The players' ability to conjure multiple moods is as impressive as their technical virtuosity. One hopes that many talented flutists and flute teachers will hear this fine performance and seek out this neglected masterwork.

 Jongen's Rhapsodie, Op. 70 is scored for the unusual combination of piano with woodwind quintet—Vytas Baksys, piano; Linda Bento-Rei, flute; Andrea Bonsignore, oboe; Catherine Hudgins, clarinet; Patricia Yee, bassoon; and Nick Rubenstein, horn. As its name implies, the work is a loosely structured series of varying moods and tempi. The Modéré opening section introduces the individual wind instruments sequentially, punctuated by arpeggios from flute and piano in lush French impressionist style. This is followed by a sharply contrasting Moorish habanera (if such a thing were possible) whose characteristic rhythm is supplied by the piano, with a changing instrumentation playing the theme over it. The players' subtle rubato—no doubt difficult to achieve without a conductor—makes this section smoky and seductive. A third section, Molto vivo, brings us vigorously back into bright sunshine while ingeniously weaving in echoes from the two previous sections. A more moderate passage is left initially to the wind instruments only, becoming still more relaxed and lyrical when the piano reënters. Nonetheless, it builds up before long to the powerful triple-meter final section, full of jubilation. Soon enough, in keeping with the freedom of a rhapsody, the energy begins to taper off as the music seems about to drift into slumber. One last time the composer skillfully reintroduces material from the work's opening section, as if in the vague recollection of a dream, before the surprise of a final outburst of joy. Baksys, Bento-Rei, Bonsignore, Hudgins, Yee, and Rubenstein have the sound of an experienced chamber group: each individual gracefully takes and yields the spotlight as appropriate, and as a group, their intonation, balances, and ensemble are all one could wish for. This is another vividly evocative rendition and one that should arouse the interest of wind ensembles (with access to an excellent pianist!) hoping to enlarge their repertoire.

 The Danse lente, Op. 56, stands somewhat apart from its discmates, not merely for its date of composition—1918 vs. 1922-1924—but also for its simplicity and general feeling of introspection. The composer created a version for flute and harp, and another, only slightly modified, for flute and piano. Bento-Rei and Baksys give us the latter in a simple, direct reading that is the more moving for its avoidance of “interpretation.” Given the work's date, one might expect a dirge for war-torn Europe, but aside from one expansive climax, the prevailing mood is of a bittersweet, gentle yearning. (It is worth noting that the piece was written in London, where Jongen lived in exile during World War I.) The final harmony is particularly evocative of unfulfilled desire for resolution: the piano forms a minor seventh chord while the flute adds the ninth to it, but neither seventh nor ninth resolves as expected to the tonic chord, as if the composer were telling us that sometimes we simply have to learn to live without what we yearn for.

 In my view, this recording is a resounding success on all counts. Its performances are passionately committed and beautiful; the selection of repertoire enables the listener to hear Joseph Jongen's musical influences but also the aspects of his music that make it uniquely his; the excellent program notes by Steven Ledbetter are helpful to connoisseur and layperson alike; and the sensitive engineering of Antonio Oliart has resulted in exemplary sound quality, both sumptuous and transparent, detailed and atmospheric. I hope this is Volume 1 in a series exploring the chamber music of this composer so unjustly neglected. 

-Geoff Wieting, The Boston Music Intelligencer

CD Review by Geoff Wieting, Boston Music Intelligencer

Linda Bento-Rei's newest recording, "Invocation", grabs the attention right away with its booklet's cover art: a woman's face elaborately painted in black, white, and red, at once primitive and sophisticated. The recording brings together some wonderfully diverse flute chamber works of 20th and 21st century composers. Lovers of classical music as well as jazz aficionados will find much to enjoy here. Perhaps the single most impressive aspect of the recording is the phenomenal sense of rhythm of Bento-Rei and her colleagues; they achieve a degree of musical symbiosis rarely heard. 

The fresh opening is the Spring Serenade for flute and piano by Peter Schickele (b. 1935), who might be called a victim of his own success. His "discovered composer" P. D. Q. Bach has been such a popular parody of Baroque- and Classical-period music that relatively few listeners are aware of Schickele's serious compositions. Bento-Rei and pianist Vytas Baksys create a bewitching atmosphere in the Serenade's first movement, Invocation, the flute beginning rhythmically independent of the piano and in the distance (offstage in a live performance), but gradually approaching and ultimately coordinating phrases. With its unpredictable rhythmic twists and turns, the brief Pastorale evokes a pair of youngsters playing catch-me-if-you-can. The scherzo, aptly named Whirlwind Waltz, features breathless chains of triplets but also alternating "trio sections" of a lovely melancholy. The performers' synergy is impressive through the many irregular rhythms and changes of tempo. The slow movement, Song, is notable for its spare textures: Baksys opens alone with two voices moving in contrary motion, Bento-Rei joins with a simple but haunting tune, and finally we return to the two voices again but with the flute supplying one of them this time, without vibrato. The virtuoso Finale is (to use a retro phrase) a gas, mostly jazz, featuring long runs--flute and piano in octaves--that double back on themselves, boogie-woogie piano left-hand, more reflective sections, and bluesy figures tossed back and forth antiphonally. Bento-Rei and Baksys have themselves a grand time, and their immaculate ensemble is truly astounding.

In Mládí ("Youth"), by Leoš Janácek (1854-1928), Bento-Rei is an equal partner (perhaps "first among equals") with five other accomplished wind players: Andrea Bonsignore, oboe; Rane Moore, clarinet; Nicholas Rubenstein, horn; Patricia Yee, bassoon; and Gary Gorczyca, bass clarinet. The players vividly capture Janácek's portrait in the first movement of  the unrest and confusion of his adolescence but also the excitement of the possibilities appearing before him. The second movement, Andante sostenuto, immediately catches the ear with its unusual combination of bassoon and bass clarinet playing in unison. Though the preponderance of the movement is introspective, it rises to several climaxes; through wide-ranging changes of tempo, dynamics and mood, the musicians' ensemble and balance is exemplary. In the mischievous scherzo, Bento-Rei exchanges her flute for a mischievous piccolo, though as in the preceding Schickele work, interspersed are multiple, more contemplative "trio sections", in which Bonsignore, Bento-Rei, and Rubenstein offer handsome solos. The final movement is largely an elaboration of the material of the first, patterned on the speech rhythms in the Moravian tongue of "youth, golden youth", adding perhaps a bit more technical brilliance. Again, in music with a plethora of moods, tempi, and dynamics, these six players achieve wizardry without a conductor.

The Chant de Linos of André Jolivet (1905-1974) was first written for flute and piano as a competition piece for the Paris Conservatoire but is perhaps better known in Jolivet's transcription for flute, harp, and string trio. It is this rather more colorful version performed here by Bento-Rei; Ann Hobson-Pilot, harp; Miguel Pérez-Espejo, violin; Nathaniel Farny, viola; and Michael Curry, cello. There are a number of conflicting Greek myths concerning Linus, but most accepted that he was a musician of outstanding talent; in some accounts he is the son of Apollo, the god of music, by a mortal woman. The term ailinon meant a harvest song lamenting the "death of the year" but was possibly derived from ai Linon ("alas for Linus") since, in many of the stories, Linus died young. The Chant follows this tradition of funeral lament in the Mediterranean cathartic manner, including wild cries of lamentation and even dancing. One might say it is the musical equivalent of the CD's cover art: sophisticated and primitive at the same time. The work makes extravagant demands on the flutist, but Bento-Rei takes it in stride, using the technical display for musical purposes. These superb instrumentalists take the listener on an exotic and emotional journey, with grief rising to a climax, falling back for a time, then rising to another peak, subsiding again, and so on. Very free cadenzas alternate with strict dance rhythms, and as before, the players' flawless ensemble impresses mightily.

While Chant de Linos ends brightly, its overall emotional intensity is undeniable. It was a wise choice to end the program with a light, airy, even fun piece: Sonata Latino by Mike Mower (b. 1958). The genre of classical-jazz fusion for flute, piano, et al., goes back at least as far as the 1970s with Claude Bolling's pieces for Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Mower's contribution is of comparable quality--with a Latin accent. Sonata Latino exists in several instrumental configurations; "Invocation" gives us a medium version with Bento-Rei; Vytas Baksys, piano; Fernando Huergo, bass; Robert Tamagni, drum-set; and Ricardo Monzon, Mikael Ringquist, and Marcus Santos, Latin percussion. Bento-Rei and Baksys convey Latin flavor authoritatively, undoubtedly assisted by Latin percussionists. Each of the work's three movements incorporates the musical style of a different country. The opening Salsa montunate, using Cuban salsa and son montunato (mountain song), has irrepressible energy and the spontaneity of a jazz improvisation--until we hear both flute and piano play the same brilliant and complex runs in octaves and are reminded this is a through-composed piece. The second movement, Rumbango, mixing Argentine tango and Colombian rumba rhythms, begins with a flute solo, soon joined by the piano; with their colorful playing Bento-Rei and Baksys facilitate fantasy. Thereafter, Baksys initiates the strict but sensuous beat of the tango, and soon Bento-Rei joins, adding melodic interest and flourishes. A brief, lyrical central section brings back the percussion instruments and is characterized by delicious syncopations and harmonies. With the return of the tango, flute and piano build to a climax where Baksys supplies percussion with fortissimo tone clusters at the bottom of the keyboard; a sly pianissimo tag supplies the final cadence. The regular percussionists and bass return in the final movement, Bossa merengova, which incorporates the Brazilian bossa nova as well as the merengue of Venezuela and Colombia. Despite its complex, continually syncopated rhythms, this brilliant and energetic performance always feels like an "invitation to the dance".

­

"Invocation" is an apt title for a program that invokes individual things--spring, youth, a recently deceased loved one, and Latin dance styles--but also diversity generally. Linda Bento-Rei, as central performer, demonstrates the enormous versatility that this demands. She and her excellent colleagues show most enjoyably that variety is the spice of life.

Harry Schroeder, Key West Citizen -

The CD consists of works by four composers, ranging over a wide variety of styles and instrumentations. For flute and piano, there is Peter Schickele, writing under his own name; for wind sextet, Leos Janacek; for flute, string trio and harp, Andre Jolivet; and for flute and salsa rhythm section, Mike Mower’s “Sonata Latino.” In the entire hour’s recording there is not a weak place anywhere in the ensemble work; but special mention should be made of the playing of pianist Vytas Baksys, which is accurately supportive in the Schickele and rhythmically authentic in the complex salsa underpinnings of the Mower.

    This is an absolutely outstanding recording, which will replay many rehearings. The excellences one looks for in flute playing are here. Ms. Bento-Rei’s intonation is impeccable, as is her attack. There are passages of dazzling virtuosity, especially in the Schickele. And there are other virtues here which are beyond the expected. Her sound in strong passages is as rich and full as I’ve heard on that instrument, while in softer passages, especially in the Janacek, it has a nice delicacy. Her playing has, when she needs it, a quite extraordinary authority, often of a degree which one more commonly finds in a lead trumpet. And none of this comes at a price: there are, to my ear, no moments of compromise, no places where, for example, emotion is sacrificed for mechanical precision, or sound for speed. The playing throughout has great integrity: all its virtues are in the service of a larger musicality.

   The strongest piece, for me, was the Mower, where the flute is the single voice, supported by piano, bass, drums, and three Latin percussionists, all outstanding players. In that music the complex rhythmic base is crucial: these players got it right, and the flute riding over the top of it is an ongoing lifting of the spirit. There is one passage (at about 3:40 of the “Rumbango”) which is irresistible. This is a performance by someone who has mastered her instrument and is having a quite wonderful time with that. 

Education

• New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA - Master of Flute Performance, Merit Scholarship
• Boston Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA - Bachelor of Flute Performance, cum laude

 Orchestral Experience

• Venice Symphony, Principal Flute, 2014 to Present
• Fifth Avenue Chamber Orchestra, Naples, FL, 2016 to Present
• Venice Chorale, 2015 to Present
• Newport Contemporary Music Festival, 2017
• Gulfshore Opera, Naples, FL - Principal Flute, 2016
• Opera Worcester “Carmen”, Worcester, MA - Principal Flute, 2013
• Substitute - Portland Symphony Orchestra, Portland, ME; Key West Symphony Orchestra, Key West, FL; Lexington Symphony Orchestra, Lexington, MA; Rhode Island Philharmonic, Providence, RI; New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, Nashua, NH; Festival Ballet Orchestra, Providence, RI; Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Burlington, VT; Albany Symphony
• Milford Symphony Orchestra, Milford, MA - Principal Flute 1985-1995 - Soloist, Mozart Concerto in G Major, Howard Hansen, Serenade

 Chamber Music Experience

• Artistic Director/Co-Founder/Performer, Sarasota Musica Viva, 2014 to Present. www.sarasotamusicaviva.org
• 2015/2016 Season – Duo and chamber music concerts with Ann Hobson-Pilot, retired principal harpist with the Boston Symphony at Pine Shores Presbyterian Church, Sarasota, FL & Grace Methodist, Venice, FL
• 2014/2015 Season - Duo concerts with Boston Symphony pianist, Vytas Baksys at LiveArts Concert, Franklin, MA; Brooks Hall, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA; Wellesley Free Library, Wellesley, MA; St. Boniface Church, Siesta Key, FL; David Cohen Hall, Sarasota, FL; Grace Methodist, Venice, FL; Church of the Holy Spirit, Osprey, FL
• 2014/2015 Season – Chamber Music concerts with the Venice Symphony String Quartet at Grace Methodist, Venice, FL; Church of the Holy Spirit, Sarasota, FL; Chart House, Longboat Key, FL
• 2013/2014 Season - “The Jongen Project” CD Release Concert (acclaimed review) at Brown Hall, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA. Duo concert with Vytas Baksys at Rivera Recital Hall, The Rivers School, Weston, MA. Chamber Music concert with Ann Pilot and Carol Lieberman at Brooks Hall, College of the Holy Cross.
• 2012-2013 Season - Performances with Boston Symphony Concert Master Malcolm Lowe, principal violist  Steve Ansell, cellist Michael Curry, Ann Hobson-Pilot at Razzo Hall, Clark University, Worcester, MA & Worcester Soiree Society private concert.
• 1995-2014 - Arlington Street Chamber Players, Boston, MA - Woodwind Quintet concerts throughout New England
• 2001-2005Massachusetts Flute Choir – Professional flute choir, Boston, MA 

   

 Recording Artist

• “The Jongen Project”, The Music of Joseph Jongen, Chamber Music Recording Project with members of the Boston Symphony. Released January, 2014 available at Amazon.com
• “Invocation”, Schickele, Janacek, Mower, Jolivet Chamber Music Recording Project with members of the Boston Symphony. Released October, 2015 available at Amazon.com
• "Noel ~ Reinvented Holiday Classics", with pianist, Vytas J. Baksys, arrangements by Robert Nieske, Released October, 2017 available at Amazon.com
• “Un-Known, Duos For Flute And Piano” with pianist, Vytas J. Baksys, will be released in April, 2020
• “Radically Traditional” with Fernando Brandao, Bertram Lehmann, Michael Weinfield-Zell, will be released in September, 2020

Affiliations

• Sarasota Musica Viva, President Board of Directors/Artistic Director/Performer, Venice, FL 2014 to Present
• Worcester Chamber Players, President, Board of Directors, Worcester, MA 2005-2014
• La Musica International Music Festival, Board of Directors, Sarasota, FL 2015-2017
• Musician's Committee Member, The Venice Symphony Orchestra, Venice, FL 2016, 2019 - 2020
• The Flutists’Guild, Founder and President. Non-profit flute club which hosts educational and social events including Sir James Galway in Master Class and Recital on August 13, 2005 at Tanglewood, Elizabeth Rowe (BSO) in Master Class and Recital on November 12, 2005 in Cambridge, MA  and on May 4, 2009 and Robert Waelkens and Consort from Belgium in Master Class and Recital in April, 2006.
• James Pappoutsakis Memorial Scholarship Competition, Adjudicator for finals, 2006
• Louis DeVoe Memorial Scholarship Competition, Adjudicator, 2004, 2005
• The Art of the Flute Educational Foundation, Co-Founder/President, 2001 to Present
• The Greater Boston Flute Association, President, 2003-2004  
• The Greater Boston Flute Association, Member Board of Directors, 2002-2003
• National Flute Association 2004 Convention, Nashville, TN, Clinician
• National Flue Association 2019 Convention, Salt Lake City, UT, Performer

Call 941-870-9885 for more information.

Sarasota Musica Viva ~ Chamber Music Performances

www.sarasotamusicaviva.org

 "I just got your CD and listened to it. I like it a lot—it really is excellent. Your playing is appropriate to what you’re doing—sometimes jaunty, sometimes tender, very eloquent, and always musical. One quality I particularly like is the width of the vibrato, which is just right—always expressive, never sentimental. And you really do have one of the finest flute sounds anywhere. Vytas, as always, is terrific: relaxed but precise in touch and time, generous in feeling, and the two of you play together marvelously." - Harry Schroeder

" Noel: Reinvented Holiday Classics is the third CD recorded by flutist Linda M. Bento-Rei and pianist Vytas J. Baksys, and consists of arrangements by jazz composer, teacher, and performer Robert Nieske. The recording’s seven selections utilize multiple styles and strike a balance between the contemplative and extroverted aspects of Advent and Christmas. As someone who especially enjoys the diversity of musical languages, though, I yearned for some program notes from Nieske to gain a deeper appreciation of his inspirations and aims. Also, a few words about the variegated provenance of the original tunes would likely further enhance many listeners’ enjoyment. Ultimately, though, the handsome performances are what win the day.

The lively Ding Dong Merrily on High leads off with a jaunty keyboard introduction, setting a neo-Baroque tone for the whole arrangement: merry and polyphonic. If this were intended as a vocal/choral accompaniment, the near-constant exchange of melody and accompaniment between flute and piano even in partial phrases would be bewildering, but in an instrumental riff on a favorite carol, we can enjoy it as playful collaboration. In the interludes between verses the transparency of the counterpoint, mostly a virtue, does rather highlight parallel octaves as well as a number of root-position chords based on the leading tone—a pair of venerable “thou shalt not’s” of music theory. The playing of Bento-Rei and Baksys, however, is beyond reproach, with admirable unity of articulation, phrasing, etc.

The much more exploratory O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is considerably closer to the music of our time. Verse 1 fascinates the ear by combining two utterly unrelated components: the piano’s minimalist, unchanging ostinato chord sequence, free of perceptible meter, and the flute’s lovely, unadorned statement of the plainsong melody in duple rhythm. Though quite independent of each other, the two parts combine convincingly. The mood change of the refrain (“Rejoice!”) is accented by the piano’s taking over the melody in chords while the flute embroiders around it. The second verse features the piano’s chordal statement of the hymntune, chorale-style, though as it might be harmonized by Vince Guaraldi, while the flute initially provides decoration before again alternating melody and accompaniment functions with the piano. Verse 3 largely abandons the continuous carol melody—only fragments appear—but the harmonic progressions remain clear enough. The modal harmonic language, never consistently major or minor, captures the essential Advent mix of moods: melancholy, cautiously anticipatory, rejoicing, acclaiming of Christ’s arrival (“Emmanuel” translating as “God with us”).

Without advance knowledge, no listener would guess from Nieske’s setting of Masters in this Hall that its tune originated from French Baroque opera composer Marin Marais in 1706; to flute and piano the arranger here adds two percussion instruments, African djembe (Nieske) and triangle (Bob Tamagni) to subtly underline the playful, syncopated rhythms. Infectious dance feeling couples with technical display to reach a couple mid-point climaxes. Following the second, the arrangement becomes softer but never relinquishes the pervasive pulse that constitutes its trademark throughout. The Latin flavor of this rendering makes it particularly enjoyable.

The mysterious introduction of What Child Is This consists of detached but regular rhythmic figures with fragments only gradually revealing the classic Greensleeves melody. This fragmentation allows Nieske to create a musical mosaic with various phrases extracted and arranged in ostensibly random ways, but, clearly not designed to be sung to, it makes an engaging instrumental fantasia. It could not have been an easy task to put a fresh perspective on a tune so well-beloved over many centuries—and in both secular and sacred forms—but the composer has done his job well. Making a striking contrast at roughly midpoint, Bento-Rei offers a soaring cantilena of the refrain before Baksys takes it over on the repeat with savory jazz chords. There are hints of a second verse, but it ultimately sounds more like mutual improvisation with snippets of Greensleeves worked in, small but interesting tonal wanderings, and a slightly enigmatic ending omitting a final refrain.

The piano sets the party atmosphere of Wassail Song with its swinging rhythm soon reinforced by the flute’s extended piping on a single pitch before the melody emerges in tangy parallel fourths in the piano. At the first refrain duple rhythms alternate with triple, as per usual, before Nieske contrives to have them coexist; the cheeriness, though, remains constant. A dreamy, improvisational interlude essentially takes the place of verse 2 though with hints of the familiar melody, but the festivities return with the second refrain with more interaction of double and triple metrical patterns. The prevailing pattern of the arrangement’s latter part is the absence of such a pattern: quieter, pensive passages give way spontaneously to vigorous carousing and vice versa though the number ends with a brisk “Bottoms up!”

Though one might have expected James Murray’s American tune for Away in a Manger (interestingly titled “Mueller”) for this compilation, in fact, the arranger opts for the slightly less familiar English one, “Cradle Song” by William Kirkpatrick. Nieske’s setting opens with Bento-Rei’s rising and falling maternal caresses on the flute, but quite soon Baksys adds the melody as a single keyboard line. The arrangement includes variety via several modulations and altering the texture. After a central section of somewhat increased energy, the players return to a gentle cradle song for the affectionate finish.

In either a remarkable bit of clairvoyance or simply a stroke of lucky topicality, the disc concludes with an energized setting of the Catalan carol Fum, Fum, Fum (fum is “smoke” in that dialect), adding pungent jazz harmonies and, once again, with duple and triple rhythms setting up a “friendly competition”. Following a quasi-cadenza and seeming tapering-off, the main theme returns still faster and, unusually, in the major! This number’s element of display makes it stand out, giving a boisterous and emphatic ending to a multi-faceted, well-played, and elegantly engineered Yuletide selection. " _ Geoff Wieting

  I just got your CD and listened to it. I like it a lot—it really is excellent. Your playing is appropriate to what you’re doing—sometimes jaunty, sometimes tender, very eloquent, and always musical. One quality I particularly like is the width of the vibrato, which is just right—always expressive, never sentimental. And you really do have one of the finest flute sounds anywhere.

    Vitas, as always, is terrific: relaxed but precise in touch and time, generous in feeling, and the two of you play together marvelously. - Harry Schroeder, Key West Citizen

Available for purchase by emailing lmbrei@gmail.com.

Review by Geoff Wieting, The Boston Music Intelligencer

Flutist Linda M. Bento-Rei, with supporting artists pianist Vytas J. Baksys, bassist and composer Robert Nieske, and recording engineer Antonio Oliart, has made the latest addition to her already distinguished discography, Un-known: Duos for Flute and Piano. Concentrating almost completely on the 21^st century (with one piece from 1992), she has selected works by five composers (four living), notable for their diversity of styles (including the stylistic versatility of one composer). The performances consistently engage heart and mind, and the musicians are very persuasive advocates for these pieces.

The full complement of Bento-Rei, Baksys, and Nieske kick things off with a winning account of Andy Scott’s Salt of the Earth, his arrangement and extension of the third movement of his earlier Concerto for Tuba with Brass Band, astonishingly enough. This musical frolic is a fusion of jazz and Latin music. The artists’ playing is breezy and fun while undoubtedly scrupulously faithful to the score: the numerous doublings of pitch and complex syncopated rhythm are invariably impeccable. While its piano and bass parts are surely demanding enough, Salt of the Earth is foremost a display piece for the flute, and Bento-Rei indeed shines in it.

Yizkor and Anima Aeterna, by Robert Starer (1924-2001), presents a pair of contrasted pieces for flute and piano. A Jewish native of Vienna who escaped the Nazis and ultimately immigrated to the United States, Starer received many honors as composer and teacher. Yizkor (Hebrew for memorial or remembrance) is presumably a threnody for those who did not survive the Holocaust: its main part is mournfully beautiful (the opening flute monody is especially moving), but with some more dramatic interjections at times. The duo infuse the memorial with soulful beauty, lyricism, and drama. At its close the flute reprises the opening solo and Starer adds a touching little coda with Baksys supplying a ray of sunshine in a major-mode chord high above Bento-Rei’s sustained, vibrato-less final note, suggesting eternal peace. Continuing in the same (major) tonality, Anima Aeterna (Latin for eternal or immortal soul) is notably more animated, pulsing with energy and more varied in texture and rhythm. A fugato section in the middle provides an unexpected but convincing feature. The conclusion combines the wistful reflection of Yizkor with the characteristic piano pulsations of Anima Aeterna. The musicians bring the whole to vivid life.  

An Irish air for penny whistle was the first incarnation of the next piece, by Geraldine Green, who knew even then that it was “one of those special melodies that . . . would have to be expanded on one day.” Commissioned later to write a beautiful piece for flute and piano, Green seized the opportunity and created Nocturne. It does indeed give the impression of a lovely Irish folk tune albeit in a sumptuous setting by a talented composer. Here too the unaccompanied flute makes the atmospheric opening statement. When the piano enters, the flute adds some ornaments to the solo line in the manner of a Celtic folk singer. After the artists bring the piece to a grand climax, their gentle caress at the end is most affecting.

Andy Scott wrote Three Letter Word for saxophone and piano and later arranged it for flute. It is dedicated to the memory of Swedish composer and pianist Esbjorn Svensson who died prematurely in 2008. After a portentous introduction featuring tremolos in the piano’s bass and flute flourishes, the piano begins a vigorous ongoing riff in the left hand with varying accompaniments in the right; the flute joins in to supply a series of improvisatory though intricate commentaries of its own. After several minutes there is a lull in the previously relentless energy as the piano’s riff condenses into haunting, gentle treble chords soon joined by the flute. But soon the original basso ostinato resumes in the piano, and the flute part reaches a still higher plane of virtuosity, easily encompassed by Bento-Rei’s unfailingly fluent and rhythmic playing. The second calm passage—Scott terms it “a solo piano chorale”—is new material and has an unearthly beauty as rendered by Baksys. As the chorale continues in the piano’s right hand, the left-hand tremolos return while Bento-Rei adds graceful arpeggiations up and down. After the tremolos crescendo to what seems like an emphatic ending, there is an unexpected very brief postscript something like a cheeky wave goodbye, tossed off in perfect unanimity by both players.

For And Everything Is Still Andy Scott found inspiration from a poem in Lemn Sissay’s children’s book The Emperor’s Watchmaker. Exquisitely beautiful, the piece is largely an extended melody in the flute with rich harmonies in the supporting piano chords. It is tailor-made for Bento-Rei’s gift for “bel canto” note-spinning. Though there are gentle rises and falls and the flute does become more elaborate embroidery for a time, the main pulse in the piano remains relaxed, and the overall effect is one of blessed serenity.

As with a majority of works on this disc, Robert Nieske’s Sonata for Flute and Piano existed previously in a different instrumentation, in this case a three-movement sonata for violin and piano. After meeting Linda Bento-Rei, Nieske decided to rework the sonata for flute and add a fourth movement. The moderately animated first movement alternates tuneful passages with driving ostinatos that emphasize rhythm over melody. The melodies and harmony are often angular, but dissonance is used to color the music and ultimately finds resolution. Much of the jazz-influenced second movement is built around the rhythmic motif first announced by unaccompanied flute. As always, the players have perfect empathy even playing the same writhing figures in different octaves. Late in the movement, the mood calms as both instruments explore searching figures before a recapitulation of themes from the outset brings the movement to an emphatic ending. Dramatic tone clusters (though in clear D minor tonality) in the piano create a heraldic opening to the third movement, turning to more subdued arpeggiated chords, simultaneously minor and major, as the flute joins with a sustained melody. While these two textures continue to alternate, both Bento-Rei and Baksys utilize a wide range of dynamics and tone colors. In stark contrast, the coda is a slow, mostly unison melody in the mid-high range of flute and piano, coolly austere after what precedes it. Perfect intonation is crucial here, and Bento-Rei’s is exemplary. The movement concludes intimately with a final minor-major D chord. Nieske states that he based his newly appended fourth movement on a Peyote ritual performed by a Sioux singer and drummer. The whirling opening flute solo does evoke an incantation, even a dance. Yet much of the movement seems to be ambivalent about its identity: is it melodic or a sequence of pointillistic drumbeats, tonal or atonal, a relatively simple native ritual or tough-minded contemporary concert music? Given how stylistically distinct it is from the preceding movements, I wonder if it might not work better as a separate piece, leaving the sonata in its original three-movement configuration.

Slovenian composer Blaž Pucihar also performs as pianist with his flutist wife Ana, and wrote Rituals in response to her request for “something exceptional” for flute and piano. Pucihar draws on an episode of medieval Slovenian history (a Turkish invasion) for a storyline, while encouraging performers to develop their own scenario. In any case, the considerable narrative talents of Bento-Rei and Baksys tell a compelling story. The opening juxtaposes a long-breathed flute melody with soothing ripples in the piano—villagers gathered round a fire while someone sings off in the distance. The artists’ liquid legato and warm tone evoke a cohesive community. As the scene shifts to increased apprehension of the approaching invasion and to actual conflict, the writing for both instruments becomes more brilliant, particularly the acrobatics in the flute. The concluding section is a 7/8 dance celebrating victory over the invaders with infectious joy, though not without an interlude of sober (but not somber) reflection before a final ecstatic outburst. I hope the Pucihar duo will be the source of more fine works for flute and piano and that they receive performances as treasurable as this one.