- The Times
(Malédictions d’une furie) ” In a compelling 45 minutes, Lore Lixenberg recreated virtuoso gasps, arching melismas and vocalisations in the company of the haunting whispering and wailing of Richard Craig’s bass and contrabass flutes (….) all against the backdrop of grainy film by Craig, resembling water movement, lava flows and flickering flames”
Hilary Finch, 15/5/2012
“There is a conviction and enthusiasm in this playing that holds your attention and promotes the idiom as well as anyone else can.”
Gorman, 12/2011
- Excerpts from The Rambler review of INWARD, released in February 2011
“Barrett’s piece Inward (along with the pieces by Johnson and Croft one of three heart-achingly beautiful tracks here) surrounds the flute in a fragile halo of percussion, a hint of the wider halo that the piece possesses in its other incarnations as the core of Schneebett, itself the third movement of the cycle Opening of the Mouth“
“His Unity Capsule is a full five minutes (nearly a third) shorter than Paula Rae’s premiere recording with ELISION from 1998 (which is too languid for my taste) and still four minutes shorter than Kolbeinn Bjarnason’s much tighter performance of 2002. The details fly by at a hell of lick, in fact but, crucially and miraculously, not at the expense of precision. This is a performance that is dense – high resolution – but not hurried. Craig instills the piece – so often caricatured as a Sisyphean struggle against an unyielding notation – with fearsome confidence, swagger even. Thirty-five years on its challenges may have been parried, absorbed, reflected and dispersed anew, but it speaks now with a commanding and often beautiful authority.”
“The two best new works, however, are those by Johnson and Croft. Coming after theSciarrino, which ends with a flat, focussed stream of tongue slaps and breath noises, Croft’s fantasia for alto flute and electronics is like stepping onto another world. The title alludes to ‘the air that trembles’ that Dante encounters in the first circle of hell, inhabited the ancient poets and philosophers, before crossing into the second circle, the realm of the excessively passionate and, rather like the Barrett, there is a sense of both withdrawing and projecting, an almost erotic play with a threshold”
“Now each instrument has its “cutting edge” exploratory champion….for the flute, Richard Craig is surely one to be reckoned with.”
Peter Graham Woolf
- Paul Griffiths author and former New York Times Critic (full review)
“Richard Craig’s collection of flute music (Métier msv 28517), recorded with close immediacy, places the listener in a wind tunnel whose walls are of flesh and metal, these sometimes heard as simultaneous alternatives, sometimes in undulating union. Altogether this is remarkable playing, remarkable possession of the music by the performer through a wide range of styles and situations – or of the performer by the music. Hard to say which. The rhythm of the record is that of the music exerting itself.
Ferneyhough’s Unity Capsule (1975-6) is the oldest piece here, and the jumping-off point for many of the works by younger composers, even if Craig’s performance acknowledges this work’s still daring novelty as much as its classic status. He takes it faster than his predecessors on record, but with exhilarating definition. In the first half of the piece one might have the impression of a dancer working against entrapment – entrapment that then becomes itself dance. The ending is wonderful, with a winding down into iteration, followed by disappearance in a puff of smoke.”
“As flautists we are familiar with the ‘extended techniques’ which are called for in contemporary works, but despite their having been part of the stock-in-trade of composers and imaginative composers for fifty years they still all too often feel like ‘extensions’, rather than being integrated convincingly into the stuff of performance. This recording is, among other things, an important marker of how things can and should be; a committed and sensuous riposte to the detractors of the (technically and musically) difficult contemporary repertoire.
Dominik Karski’s Streamforms for solo bass flute opens the CD, and its relatively continuous threads of activity- key clicks, tongue-slaps, breath sounds and extraordinarily rapid flutter tonguing– lead the ear on a relatively intuitive and comprehensible journey. Flautist Richard Craig inhabits the piece skilfully and thoughtfully. Brian Ferneyhough’s daunting flute solo Unity Capsule, taken here markedly faster than I have ever heard before, but with no loss of detail nor any apparent haste, follows. Craig has simply become so familiar with the density and tissue of the material that he gives a truly virtuosic performance. This doesn’t mean that it is easy to listen to: as the CD line’s well written notes put it, this is ‘dizzying, alienating and painfully human music’.
Evan Johnson’s L’art de Toucher le clavecin wraps Craig’s piccolo in Sciarrino-like upper-register violin elaborations in a foretaste of the second of the three classic works on the CD, Sciarrino’s own Venere che le grazie la fiorniscono, in which the solo flute teeters ‘on the brink of audibility’ in a world of beautifully inflected whistle tones and key clicks. The Johnson is a beautifully-woven piece, effortlessly holding its own with the classics on this recording. The Sciarrino is preceded by a solo alto flute work, Alpha Waves, by Malin Bång which shares some language with the Karski piece, but is, for me, marginally less successful.
The recording ends with perhaps the two most impressive works: John Croft’s simply beautiful …ne l’aura che trema for alto flute and live electronics, and which the former excites the latter into complex and erotic ‘tails’ of activity of varying detail and behaviour, entrancing; and the CD’s third ‘classic’ and on the evidence of this performance the one with the most longevity, Richard Barrett’s inward. Whereas Croft’s sensuousness indulges us throughout, the Barrett work, for flute and percussion, tempers its eroticism and tactility, with references to the more alienated language of the Ferneyhough piece.
All of the works are superbly, even sumptuously, recorded. Richard Craig, is a wonderfully authoritative and articulate performer, and the works here, classics or newly commissioned, are all important contributions to the flute repertoire. Anyone interested in the flute’s capacities, technical and (more particularly) musical, with respect to the contemporary end of that repertoire should buy this disc immediately. It too will become a classic.”
Simon Waters 
“Inward brings together music by Dominik Karski, Brian Ferneyhough, Evan Johnson, Malin Bång, Salvatore Sciarrino, John Croft and Richard Barrett played with astonishing virtuosity by Richard Craig. All of the music on the disc is ferociously original, but John Croft’s …ne l’aura che trema for alto flute and electronics and Richard Barrett’sInward for flute and percussion particularly stand out. Inward is a remarkably apposite title for an album that fully engages the listener without reference to physical and emotional landscapes.”
“Flautist Craig is either unaccompanied, or the accompaniment is subdued, in a superbly conceived programme that includes Ferneyhough’s groundbreaking Unity Capsule, Sciarrino’s Venere che le grazie la fioriscono and Richard Barrett’s Inward, plus world premiere recordings of pieces by younger composers Dominik Karski, Evan Johnson, John Croft and Malin Bång.
The album has been six years in preparation, during which time Craig worked with all of the composers – an effort totally justified by the results. TheCD title Inward is mostly apt, but not for the high octane interpretation of Ferneyhough’s Unity Capsule from 1975-76. The idea of New Complexity was meant to be that authentic performance ‘failed’ heroically (echose of Theodor Adorno). Possibly Ferneyhough guessed that performers would overcome the fearful difficulties of Newly Complex notation, thus losing the appearance of struggle against an impossible ideal of accurate performance. Ironically, Craig’s remarkable mastery may be bringing that about. Inward (1994-95), by Ferneyhough descendant Richard Barrett, was first performed as part of the cluster-work Opening of the Mouth. The flute is surrounded by a ‘fragile halo’ of percussion – bell trees, bamboo sticks, Thai gong and temple block – which, in its concluding intensity, extinguishes it.”
Andy Hamilton
- MUSICWEB international
“Richard Craig is developing a reputation as a leading light in the performance of contemporary music for solo flute. This disc features a series of works, many of which are heard here in their first recording.
Dominik Karsk’sStreamformsis a complex piece for bass flute which incorporates percussive sounds and tongue-rams to create a rhythmic groove. This focuses on the physicality of performance and the relationship between the player and the instrument. Using air sounds and a wide variety of contemporary techniques, the music demonstrates the ‘otherworldly’ characteristics of the bass flute and is a feast for the ears.
Brian Ferneyhough’s new complexity style lends itself well to the flute and the instrument’s range of available sounds.Unity Capsuleis demanding and displays a full range of sounds throughout its eleven minute duration. The playing here is convincing and one has the sense of Craig’s passion for the music. The phrasing is musical and well communicated, with a good sense of contrast between the different sections. This is a display of excellent technical virtuosity of which Craig deserves to be proud.
L’art de toucher le clavecin, 2is a work for piccolo and violin by Evan Johnson. It takes its title from Couperin’s seminal score. The connection with Couperin is not clearly evident from hearing the piece, although the programme notes explain the composer’s intention of creating something of an abstract homage, which particularly looks into the use of surface ornamentation. On this level, the connection can be felt, and Johnson creates some fascinating textures between the two instruments. The combination of piccolo and violin is an undoubtedly squeaky one, but is not without its charms.
Malin Bång’s alto flute solo,Alpha Wavesuses predominantly air and voice sounds in the opening section to create its distinctive resonance. The piece deals with the sleep cycle, travelling through the stages of the cycle in clearly delineated sections.
Salvatore Sciarrino is perhaps the leader in writing for the intimate complexities of an individual instrument. His works for flute make use of intensely quiet effects, such as whistle tones and air sounds.Venere che le grazie la fiorisconofor solo flute has the effect of drawing the listener in, towards what feels like the internal sounds of the instrument. The music becomes gradually more frenzied and there is a sense of an inevitable journey which leads towards the final episode of the piece. This is thoroughly gripping and exciting to listen to, and for me, the highlight of the disc.
John Croft’s…ne l’aura che tremais an atmospheric work for alto flute and electronics. There are some intensely beautiful moments and the electronics are used as an extension of the flute’s sound to create an organic soundscape.
The final work on the disc is Richard Barrett’sInwardfor flute and percussion. There is a sense of the exotic here, most notably from the range of percussion used, which includes tabla, temple blocks and a Thai gong. The flute weaves around the percussion with a muted tone colour and the well considered use of a range of contemporary techniques such as whistle tones, tongue-rams and air sounds.
There is no doubt that Richard Craig is a master of contemporary techniques for his instrument. He approaches the avant-garde with an obvious technical control and clear musical understanding, and the music is well communicated. This disc has much to offer in terms of both its repertoire and quality, and there is a pleasing consistency of standards throughout.”
Carla Rees
- ECAT, Edinburgh, Scotland
“Performing James Dillon’s 1984 flute solo Sgothan or cloud, a last minute replacement for Carceri D’Invenzione 2c, flautist Richard Craig brought an energetic dynamism to the piece. Working in conjunction with Dillon over several years, Craig has imbued the fleeting, conversational riffs that make up the piece’s 24 parts with an ambitious physical vitality.”
26/10/09 The Scotsman, Josie Balfour
- Gapplegate Music Review on AGP release73
“Like Gazzeloni before him, Mr. Craig plays with incredible range and dexterity, utilizing both traditional and modern techniques to transform the flute into something with an almost infinite palette of tone color.”
30/07/09 Grego Gapplegate Edwards
- Samtida Musik , with the rùin , Capitol, Stockholm
“The concert closed with a superb interpretation of Richard Barrett’s Inward – for flute and percussion. A work moving between the extremes of delicate wind chimes and sea shells to the pounding of a hammer on wood.”
17/01/09 Tritonus Mattias Sköld
- S.O.U.N.D Festival, Aberdeen University Kings College Chapel
“ A real spirit of congeniality seemed to surround the Composers’ Day Concert early on Saturday evening. It brought together three of the prime movers in north-east music: Aberdeen University, the Aberdeen International Youth Festival and the s-o-u-n-d Festival. And what could be more heartening than an event that brought these three great forces together to promote freshly minted works from six enthusiastic young composers? Five of them were present in King’s College Chapel to experience the special thrill of hearing their music played live by a group of gifted young performers. These were the dynamic young Alba Quartet and the amazing flautist Richard Craig who had stepped in at a moment’s notice to replace an indisposed Roberto Fabbriciani.”
Recital, Zeste, Aberdeen University
“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good”. What a shame that Roberto Fabbriciani is currently indisposed and has been unable to join us for s-o-u-n-d this year, but then we would have missed the opportunity of welcoming back Richard Craig and hearing him play again some of the pieces that he premiered so spectacularly in Aberdeen at last year’s s-o-u-n-d Festival.
If there is one lesson to be taken away from his performance at Zeste on Sunday, it is that listening itself is a skill that deserves to be learned and developed; not a passive activity, but something that requires effort and commitment and where the rewards can be truly mind expanding.
What has this to do with Richard Craig’s performance? Well, first of all, much of the music he performed lived almost on the edge of silence and it was filled with such a plethora of minute detail that it needed intense concentration for it to be fully absorbed…”
“…(Doloroso, Kurtág) was “hovering on the edge of silence” and indeed Richard Craig performed it with a remarkable unwavering pianissimo delicacy..”
25-6/10/08 Alan Cooper
“A lot of people think of the flute as being very light and pretty, and simply not capable of sounding strong, powerful or musically versatile. Such was the skill of Richard Craig at this recital, he showed everyone there just what the flute could do, and produced nuances and sounds that I didn’t think were possible.”
25-6/10/08 Jayne Carmichael Sunday Mail
Postimees
“…the soloist, Richard Craig, gave the impression of somehow being distant, but behind this there was an abundance of nuances uncovering a rich and sensual world…”
07/04/08 Mirje Mändla, Postimees, Estonia
“…the s-o-u-n-d Festival presented yet another avant-garde wind player of astounding ability, this time the youthful flautist, Richard Craig. With him came composer John Croft to handle the electronic element in his piece ne l’aura che trema which brought the performance to a startlingly evocative conclusion. It should be noted that every one of the pieces in the programme was receiving either its UK or its Scottish premiere; just what s-o-u-n-d is all about.
Much of the music was of startling delicacy as Richard Craig brought the dynamic of the flute to the very edge of audibility. The opening piece, Unanswered Questions for solo flute by Tristan Murail was a case in point.
(Murail) radiated a cool, fragile stillness; a sound of such brittle clarity as I have never heard before. The more avant-garde elements in this piece included effects such as the use of microtones. These were beautifully incorporated into the fabric of the piece…”
“..this is a repertoire which knows no bounds and we must thank Richard Craig and SOUND for this brief insight into some of its secrets.”
21-24/11/07, Alan Cooper, SOUND festival
Larry Krantz flute list
“It was Richard Craig’s artistry and commitment that made his performances so compelling. I have never heard such complete mastery of the flute. His delicate pianissimo playing, particularly in the altissimo range, was as astonishing as it was exquisite. There was a calmness yet a freedom in his sounds, which were aided by some supremely elegant finger-work.”
28/11/07, Gordon Lees, Larry Krantz flute list
- ASPECTS OF COMPLEXITY, ECAT, Queens Hall *****
The Herald
“Debussy’s Syrinx, Varese’s Density 21.5 and Berio’s Sequenza 1 form the fountainhead of modern solo flute music. In his recital for Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust, however, Richard Craig plunged without preamble into more recent things, entitling his programme Aspects of Complexity, yet making light of Brian Ferneyhough, a composer whose complexity is dark and notorious.
How he did so is easily explained. The Glasgow flautist, a recent product of the RSAMD, is a virtuoso of the first order, albeit a quiet one. To Ferneyhough and James Dillon, another ogre of today’s music, he can bring a playfulness not only aural but visual. With 10 music stands – arranged in a straight line – as his props, he ensured that some 90 minutes of vanguard flute tone neither palled nor daunted. The puckish side of the instrument, and of the performer, made the recital a scintillating display of music theatre. His progression from stand to stand, not always beginning at the beginning and not always ending at the end, was part of his entrancingly diffident act.
Sometimes, as in Ferneyhough’s Unity Capsule, he ran the full gamut of music stands, closing with a soft but deliberate cough of achievement into the mouthpiece of the instrument. But this was a recital in which even Dillon’s tiny Diffraction for the tiniest of flutes – a piccolo – sounded puckish rather than rebarbative. So did the fluttering of Michael Finnissy’s Sikangnuga in conjunction with the calm bass flute tone of the same composer’s Ulpirra, though the jumpy, piercing intensity of an extract from Ferneyhough’s Carceri d’Invenzione swept almost everything else aside.”
22/03/2007 Conrad Wilson
- LONDON DEBUT REVIEWS:
The Guardian
“Craig, who represents virtuosity at its most beguiling, gave exquisite performances of Kaija Saariaho’s Laconisme de l’Aile and Michael Finnissy’s beautiful Ulpirra, while James Dillon’s Sgothan, pushing the instrument to its technical and expressive limits, was a tour de force.”
14/01/2005 Tim Ashley
Musical Pointers
“Just a few notes of Dillon’s Sgothan, suffused with ground-breaking multiple techniques, instilled confidence that this was a musician who would give an exemplary account of the standard flute repertoire too…. Craig is a worthy heir to UK’s Nancy Ruffer of the older generation and Mario Caroli of the younger flute virtuosi on the continent.”
27/01/2005 Peter Grahame Woolf
Neue Musikzeitung
“der Flötist Richard Craig….deren Namen es zu registrieren gilt. Eine inspirierende Tour de force” (…and the flautist Richard Craig, among others, we should take note of his name. An inspirational tour de force.)
15/01/2005 Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt
Classical Source
“Flautist Richard Craig confirmed his credentials with an elegantly phrased account of James Dillon’s Sgothan, and identified with the inward intensity of Fujikura’s Poison Mushroom – its evoking of atomic desolation sensitively worked into a sonic tapestry whose tape part was skilfully diffused by overhead speaker placement. Michael Finnissy’s Ulpirra was a hushed, caressing study in bass flute sonority, while Kaija Saariaho’s Laconisme de l’Aile interweaved flute and voice into delicate birdsong arabesques. Franco Donatoni’s Nidi, hectic yet playful in its piccolo pyrotechnics, set the seal on a distinguished recital”
14/01/2005 Richard Whitehouse
The Times
“Richard Craig is a brilliant flautist.”
14/01/2005 John Allison
- OTHER REVIEWS:
NutidaMusik, Sweden
“ …Kvällens höjdpunkt var framförandet av Salvatore Sciarrinos la perfezione di uno spirito sottile för flöjt och mezzosopran.
Richard Craig framförde verket med den ären och med en kontroll av moderna flöjtteckniker som man sällan hör.”
(..The evening’s highpoint was Salvatore Sciarrino’s la perfezione di uno spirito sottile. Richard Craig conveyed the work with preciousness and control that is seldom heard in modern flute technique..)
Tebogo Monnakgotla 3/2007
The Herald
”…The pieces ranged in scale from utilising all the musicians to solos, and, indeed, it was two of the latter works that made the greatest impression: flautist Richard Craig playing the ephemeral, daringly experimental Ici for solo flute by Pascal Dusapin..”
Rowena Smith, 15/05/06
Classical Music Source
‘Nicolls was then joined by Scottish flautist Richard Craig for Gymel, in which an often-frenzied flute part grows out of richly resonating chords. The performers seized upon the wide range of expression afforded by this work with gusto, raising the temperature to such a degree that the windows had to be opened for a while!…’
‘…..Romanzetta, a spiky, Sequenza-like three movement work for solo flute (which Craig performed with startling dexterity seasoned by a little humour)…’
23/06/05 William Yeoman classicalmusicsource
Dernieres Nouvelles D’alsace
‘Ont fait preuve d’autant d’engagement que maîtrise technique dans un panorama placé sous le signe de l’orient. Confrontés à l’êxtreme diversité des écritures, il y mantraient tous une aisance parfois stupéfiante. Ainsi, dont la flûte de Richard Craig sûre et ductile dialogue d’égal à égal avec l’harpe évidement magistrale de Pierre Michel-Vigneau dans les tissages serrés de la Yun
‘….They showed as much technical engagement as control despite being confronted with an extreme diversity of writing and there seemed to be an astonishing ease to the whole performance. ’
‘….The confident playing of Richard Craig created a sinuous dialogue of equals due to masterly playing of Pierre-Michel Vigneau in the tight weavings of the Novellete by Isan Yun…..’ Dernieres Nouvelles D’alsace 21/05/05
- COMPOSERS
James Dillon
“thank you most of all for the music making, it is an incredibly impressive achievement. From the muscular quality of the recording to the sensitive penetration of the music.”
Hans-Joachim Hespos
“fascinating sound-brilliant technique-impressionable performance!”
Pierluigi Billone
“I heard the first CD two months ago, and the second one yesterday:I am really deeply impressed by your recordings- especially Brian Ferneyhough’s Unity Capsule and Cassandra’s Dream Song”
- MENTORS:
Mario Caroli 03/2005
“Richard Craig is, without doubt, one of the most interesting musicians of his generation. His musical flexibility, sensitivity, capability of analysis, his precision in approaching music and finally, his remarkable technical qualities, allow him to play mainstream and more demanding modern repertoire with absolute mastery.”
