Product Reviews: Syrinx for solo flute and Three Pieces for flute & piano

I bought this for the Pour invoquer Pan, Dieu du Vent d'Ete which is listed for grade 6 (I received a distinction mark for this piece), it is a beautiful piece which opens with a pastoral flute solo joined by the piano after a few bars, the melody has a lyrical, relaxed feel and I felt as though I was floating when I played the piece. There is a darker middle section requiring power in the lower octave of the flute to project over the piano, the piece then returns to the mood of the opening section and there is a leap from G in the third octave to F in the second which is a challenge for intonation (this annoyed me to no end as the original piece does not contain this leap), the piece then comes to a rest on a low G which is lovely for holding intonation. On the whole this piece is not very technically challenging but a good tone is necessary for the long high notes (although it only goes up to third octave G) and the low notes which need projection. As for the other pieces, Syrinx is of course well known as standard repertoire and it is useful to have this included in the book as you can pay more money for Syrinx alone than this book with Syrinx and three other pieces; Reverie is beautiful though not as challenging as the other pieces, there is a lovely arpeggiated section in the middle in quavers and the key change to four sharps is a little tricky (top note is third octave F#); The Little Shepherd is well known as a piano piece but it is also lovely played on flute, the runs lie under the fingers and it's not as challenging as it looks, my only qualm is that a bar and a half is marked 8va ad lib when to me it makes more sense to write it at pitch because written down the octave it goes down to low B. The print quality of the music is very good, and despite the flute part being quite thin it isn't worn at the edges after two years since I bought it, although if you're playing Syrinx or Reverie then I recommend putting a piece of paper or card behind the music so you can see the music better, otherwise bright stage lights can shine through the paper making the music difficult to read (I learn this through experience unfortunately). This book is excellent value for money (and I like the funny cartoon figure of Debussy conducting on the cover of the piano part), I thoroughly recommend it even if you aren't using it for ABRSM grade 6.