Durey’s
Sonatine, Op 25 (1929), dedicated to the critic Roland-Manuel, commences with a movement aptly marked ‘Nonchalant’: the relaxed and sustained flute line periodically acquires increased momentum which is then dissipated; as with the Milhaud the expressive markings are quite detailed, while the 5/8 metre creates some unusual rhythmic groupings. A spaciously free ‘Lent et soutenu’, with modal re-inflections, leads without break into a playful finale (‘Assez animé’), whose continuous triplet-quaver accompaniment on the piano sounds almost automated. Roles are then reversed as the flute provides an arpeggiated descant over a central piano tune; after a short reprise the music dies away, as if in a dream.
from notes by Deborah Mawer © 2001
