Take a Walk on the Wilder Side

“In the past few years Zucker has put out 15 first-rate recordings on the Cantilena label with an astonishing aray of old and new works – including several of her own fine compositions. Whether with guitar or orchestra or harp or piano accompaniment, Laurel Zucker is consistently at the highest level of flute performance. Every flute studio should have avaailable her album of Allstate Favorites (UPC #66011-2) and many of you will want to Take a Walk on the Wilder Side where she plays the complete music for flute by American master, Alec Wilder.”

“I’ll try not to turn this review into an advertisement for the California State University Sacramento flute studio, but after listening to Laurel Zucker’s performances here I make no promises. None shine as brightly as Julliard -bred Zucker as she combines each melody with a beautiful tone and a proficiency that makes her flute sound the way it was meant to sound.”

“Any fan of the irreplaceable Alec Wilder knows he has displayed an affinity for the woodwind family. He wrote numerous chamber works for flute, most of which are here gratefully gathered in one program by the fearfully proficient Laurel Zucker. Opening with an absolutely haunting, one minute 1976 vignette -Answer to a Poem – Zucker goes on to take in the 1960 Small Suite (written for Samuel Baron): a 1973 Suite for Flute and Harpsichord, two unprecedented pieces for flute and (improvised) bongos, the exceptionally inventive Suite for Flute and Marimba, … This disc fills an important niche in American music as well as in the flute literature.”

“This tribute to Alec Wilder is a charming and interesting collection of instrumentals that span the wide range of Wilder’s eclectic compositions.”