Melanie White in the Menuhin Room

 Melanie White, Menuhin Room, Portsmouth, Oct 24

While we all know what a flute is and what it does, how many pieces for it can some of us non-flautists think of? L'après-midi d'un faune, another chance to mention Everyone's a Fruit and Nutcase and some Suites by Bach. I must try harder. Gladly, Melanie White had some pieces to introduce us to. We shall not live by piano and violin alone.

I had been betting without Annie's Song, not having been aware the programme was in celebration of James Galway but not thinking of John Denver as part of the 'classical' canon either. Karen Kingsley's immense contribution to local music continued with her rippling piano accompaniment to a tune that seemed to be everywhere in the 1970's. After that the show mixed in further 'easier' listening with more technically challenging pieces.

The Concertino by Chaminade included soaring heights in its mercurial changes with some post cadenza lyricism leading to a flamboyant finish.

Gluck's Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orfeo ed Euridice was one I should have thought of and was a welcome reminder of a great composer not often heard in lunchtime affairs because they are not usually opera but its pacific classicism provided a prompt to put his music on the CD machine again soon.

The 'big ticket' item was Reinecke's Undine Sonata, a highly involved drama with an onrush of emotion in its third movement and Karen very much an equal partner rather than a supporting role. Again, there was counterpoint to be had between the two instruments in the traditional Spanish Love Song in which the love was mostly a solitary longing.

But, having thought the Gluck would stand as my highlight, along came Il pastore svizzero by Francesco Morlacchi, a theme and variations of open air gaiety and circus acrobatics in both woodwind and piano parts. You can never quite tell which bits will turn out most successfully but this stole in and stole the show at the same time.

Referring back to James Galway - and how many other musicians played both in the Berlin Philharmonic and on Top of the Pops, the finale had to be Danny Boy. If I'm not sure how much I like Annie's Song, the unadorned, moving simplicity of that fine composer, Trad's, eternal composition is one that never fails to convince.

Melanie said she had received any number of suggestions from fellow flautists when wondering what she might play. Those that she selected provided a rich and varied insight into what her instrument is capable of. It is still necessarily best at doing its floaty, lightsome thing but there is more to it than that.