Has anyone heard Sharon Bezaly? She is incredible!!!! Her technique is phenominal, what do you think to her playing?? She does the Prokofiev sonata very cleanly, slightly femnine but beautiful none the less!!!
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Yes, I am a fan. She has a beautiful, rich, dark sound and like you said her technique....just wow. She makes everything sound so fluid and easy.

But there are a couple of things that bother me about her playing. One is a complete lack of vibrato, and the other is her circular breathing. It is very audible and sounds like sniffing.

Yes, I have one of her CD's. She plays beautifully. I was also going to mention as Tim did that I also don't care for the circular breathing either. Her sound is beautiful but WAY too dark for my liking. It almost doesn't sound like a flute at times. I like a shimmering brighter sound.

Well not strictly true in real life she has a tiny sound but on records she is fantastic!!! The rich soun d is one that you need to be able to do and is really the way the flutes sound has developed to the modern day! As to the lack of vibrato, it is really personal taste , its like if you have a beautiful face why cover it up with layers of makeup. If you have a beautiful sound there isnt the constant desire for a wabble!! I do agree however uit helps with phrasing and is a nice technique to use, but a lot of flautists rely on it and if you ask them to play without, they sound...well bland! The real trick and challenge is to form an interesting sound without the huge amount of diaphram and ab wobble which is definately what sharon does!

That's very true Cooperdog. I do have to give her major credit for being able to sculpt passages and add interest, color and emotion without the use of vibrato. It's just my preference to hear a flutist play with vibrato. But I don't like crazy vibrato a la Galway or Robison.

Yeah!! Thats a generally good view :>!!

The rich soun d is one that you need to be able to do and is really the way the flutes sound has developed to the modern day!

There is a difference to me with a rich sound verses a very dark sound. I like to play with a brigher shimmering sound with dark (or rich like) overtones, not completely dark all the time. If we all started to follow and play like the trend of more modern dark then we would all sound the same. I don't let myself get caught up in trends with the flute anymore. At least I try not to. I like being me

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No offense to Robison, but I DESPISE her sound! I don't much care for a lot of vibrato myself. I like to keep it simple.

THANK YOU. Even when I was just starting out on the flute I didn't like Robison's playing. Her machine gun vibrato makes me feel either dizzy or nervous, and she plays everything way too fast.

My teachers always telin me theres no limit to coulours , hes right, so sayin dark/rich is slightly ambiguous as there are many different types, i certainly say you should never play with one sound all the time tho so it would be wrong to label a persons sound as this or that!
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Tim, when I first came across one of Robisons recordings I almost thought it was someone trying to just play silly on the flute or something like a joke. I had no idea she was a professional. ICK!

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CD, to me when I hear Sharon play, it sound like she does have many colors but they are all very dark to me. What I label as being dark, someon else might label as the total opposite though.

I'm not really over keen on Sharon's playing...her technique is astounding though, so clean, but I'm not over keen on her sound. I find she doesn't use a large enough palete of colours to bring stuff to life for me...and her interpretations aren't my favourite etc etc, its the more musical side of her that makes me not so keen...I love her technique though. My favourite recording artist would have to be Pahud !!!