For busy festival flutist, Penderecki concerto is high point

By Fred Crafts of The Register-Guard.

Talk about a marathon. Flutist Lorna McGhee is running from concert to concert during the Oregon Bach Festival.

Already she has been featured in a recital and performed in the orchestra three times.

But this week, she picks up the pace by being spotlighted in a featured section of J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor (Tuesday), a concerto (Thursday) and a recital (Friday), as well as playing in the orchestra again for the closing concert July 11.

If she's not the busiest artist at this year's festival, it would be hard to find one busier.

"It's quite daunting," she says.

How has she prepared for such an undertaking?

"Really well," she says with a laugh.

Some of the works she has known for a long time. The programs she does here in a trio with harpist Heidi Krutzen and her husband, cellist David Harding, are ones they frequently play in concerts in the Vancouver area, where she and Harding teach - at the University of British Columbia.

But it's Krzysztof Penderecki's Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra that she has focused on.

"I started work on the Penderecki a long time ago, because that's a big piece," she says. "It's a really tough one."

The 1992 Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra is dedicated to Jean-Pierre Rampal, who gave its premiere.

Into the prismatic work Penderecki put nearly every possible challenge for the soloist, who is set against vibrant orchestral colors.

A single movement, the work builds in the fast-slow-faster tradition and challenges the soloist with what Penderecki calls "intensity."

It is McGhee's favorite flute concerto.

"It's a really substantial piece," she says. "There's a lot to get your teeth into, both on a musical level and a technical level. It's a real challenge, but it's one of those pieces that's really rewarding as well. Some pieces may be technically challenging but not very rewarding to play. But this one makes a lot of sense."

McGhee says that even though Penderecki is not a flute player, he has set it expertly for the flute.

"Often the flute can either be very virtuosic or sort of light and fluffy," she explains.

"What is great about this is, he uses a lot of low register sounds. It's a lot of strong stuff to play. It's not aggressive; it has strength. There are some very lyrical moments in it. It doesn't fit into the stereotype for the flute, which is refreshing."

Emotionally, McGhee finds darkness in the piece.

"I get the sense that there is quite a lot of anger in it ... even a real deep sadness in some parts of it," she says. "You have to really play out a lot. It's quite emphatic. And demanding. And sometimes aggressive sounding."

After a pause she adds, "It's a lot of notes, too."

Scottish born, McGhee studied with William Bennet at the Royal Academy of Music.

Afterward, she moved to London to serve as co-principal flutist of the BBC Symphony for nine years.

She also was a guest principal flutist with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Further, she has performed as a soloist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Canada.

Since moving to Vancouver six years ago, she has appeared at the Sitka Summer Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Speedside Festival, Seattle Festival, Vancouver Festival, Edinburgh Festival and the Guelph Spring Festival.

She has recorded chamber music on the Decca, EMI, Naxos and Meridian labels.

While McGhee has had a variety of musical experiences already at this year's festival, she has long been looking forward to the Thursday concert (which also includes Penderecki's Agnus Dei from Polish Requiem and Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in F Major) because the renown composer himself will be conducting.

Having Penderecki on the podium is a big plus for McGhee. For one thing, the tempos "will be exactly what he wants, so I just have to step up to the plate," she says.

"It will be wonderful to get the direction straight from the horse's mouth. I felt very privileged to have that opportunity."