(SW 1033)
Frequently Christian Ridil’s works contain allusions to well-known works of music history. Sometimes these references are more formal, sometimes also contentual. In his “Märchenbilder”, the composer especially refers to Schumann’s eponymous late chamber music for viola and piano.
Although Ridil comes up with a completely different, almost “exotic” instrumentation, namely flute and percussion, his “Märchenbilder”, as with Robert Schumann, are basically a series of literary-inspired character pieces that, in purely formal terms, together they each represent a several movement duo sonata, whereby Ridil also pushes a drum intermezzo between movements II and III, which acts as a kind of cadenza.
Both in terms of playing technique and music, the flute and percussion parts are equally equal, so Ridil’s “Märchenbilder” are certainly an interesting addition to their repertoire for both flutists and drummers.
While the flutist has to change several times between the flute, piccolo and alto flute in the course of the piece, the drummer has to serve a far more various instruments including xylophone and vibraphone.
Martin Schmeck