The Virtuoso Flute

The Virtuoso Flute Music written to provide instrumentalists with the opportunity to display their technical as well as musical prowess already existed during the Baroque era – in works by Bach or Handel for keyboard instruments or in the Brandenburg Concertos by Bach, which feature a variety of instruments. During the classical period, both Mozart and Beethoven reveled in their display of mastery at the keyboard. Beethoven, especially but not only in his younger years when he was still actively performing, was innovative in finding new techniques with which he could astonish his public and confound his rivals. It was, however, during the Romantic era, with its emphasis on the individual artist, that the notion of the virtuoso as hero came into being. One thinks of the violinist Niccolò Paganini and the pianist Franz Liszt as epitomies of this exalted status. Both composed music for their own use, as did all the 19th century virtuoso performers. It was their contemporary, the musician and inventor Theobald Boehm (1794-1881), who made possible the development of a virtuoso repertoire for the flute as well. Boehm experimented with improving the flute, which at the time lacked both power and agility, in 1832, trying various materials and repositioning the tone holes. He patented his new fingering system in 1847 and first exhibited his new flute in London in 1851, coincidentally around the same time that the modern, cast-iron frame piano was introduced by Steinway and Sons. Both events unleashed a world of new possibilities for virtuoso performers. The Boehm system in its essentials is unchanged to the present day. The program chosen for this recording consists of music from the Romantic era, written to evoke all of the sonic and technical capabilities of the modern Boehm flute. Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was a French composer and pianist. As a composer, she was both prolific and, in her day, popular. Among her teachers was Benjamin Godard, whose Valse is included in this recording. Her works include many songs as well as innumerble salon pieces for piano. The Concertino Op. 107 was commissioned by the Paris Conservatory as an examination piece, meaning that it had to include various playing techniques, articulations and registers; lyrical melodies as well as rapid decorative passagework. It is dedicated to the flute virtuoso Paul Taffanel, who was professor at the Conservatory at the time. The original orchestral accompaniment was later adapted for piano. In its single movement, the Concertino presents the flutist with a wide array of interesting challenges as well as being an attractive piece for the listener. It remains in the repertoire as one of Chaminade’s most-performed works. François Borne (1840-1920) was a flutist who played in the opera orchestra in Bordeaux, France and taught at the Conservatory in Toulouse. He is remembered as well for making some mechanical improvements to the flute. The most played of his numerous compositions for flute is the Fantasie Brillante on themes from Bizet’s Carmen. Many of the virtuoso composer-performers of the day composed such opera fantasies or paraphrases. Their musical material would have been familiar to audiences and provided a useful framework for the development of decorative elaboration and technical display. Carmen, one of the most beloved operas then and now, was treated in this way by diverse other composers, including Sarasate, Busoni and in more recent times, Vladimir Horowitz. Pietro Morlacchi (1828-1868) was a Milanese flutist and composer. His relatively few works left to us include some pieces for flute and piano as well as a few pieces for piano solo. Notable are also duets composed jointly wth the bassoonist Antonio Torriani, including a Duetto Concertato on themes of Verdi, and a Gran Fantasia for flute and piano using motives from Mosè in Egitto by Rossini. Il Pastore Svizzero (The Swiss Shepherd) is in three parts, an introduction, a theme and variations and a finale. The first part, in G minor, is a cavatina – a slow and rather mournful melody which can be heard as the shepherd’s lament. It is repeated one octave higher and is followed without pause by the Canzonetta Svizzera – a Swiss song in G major with two variations. The intervals in this song are reminiscent of Swiss yodeling. The finale is a Scherzetto or „little joke“, once again in G minor and based loosely on the theme of the opening cavatina. It ends, in G major once again, in a brilliant flowering of virtuosity. Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) was a greatly respected Spanish violinist and composer. Because of his exceptional talent, he was sent at the age of 12 to the Paris Conservatory and five years later won the First Prize of the Conservatory, its highest honor. He toured extensively and was renowned for the purity of his tone and his unsentimental performing style. He wrote many popular compositions for the violin. George Bernard Shaw stated admiringly that Sarasate "left criticism gasping miles behind him." The Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) Op. 20 was composed in 1878, originally with orchestral accompaniment, and given its first performance that year in Leipzig. The work consists of four sections and employs themes of the Roma people, including one in the final section which was earlier used by Liszt in the 13th Rhapsody. The present arrangement for flute, by Robert Stallman, skillfully transfers the technical challenges of the violin version to the capabilities of the flute. Benjamin Godard (1849-1895) initially studied violin, with Henri Vieuxtemps. It is as an enormously productive composer that he is remembered. His output includes 8 operas, three symphonies, concertos, chamber music and more than 100 songs. The Valse is the third of three pieces in his Suite for flute and piano, Op. 116, the other two being Allegretto and Idylle. The Suite was published in 1889 at a time when the Viennese waltz was in its heyday. The Valse is a work of great verve and spirit, and is very difficult for the flute. Vittorio Monti (1868-1922) was an Italian composer, violinist, mandolinist and conductor. He wrote several ballets and operettas as well as a mandolin method. His most famous work, however, is the Csárdás, written in 1904 for violin or mandolin and piano, which is played by Gypsy violinists everywhere. The Csárdás is a traditional Hungarian folk dance, whose name derives from an old Hungarian term for tavern. It customarily consists of a slow part (lassú) and a quick part (friss). Monti follows this structure (as did Liszt and Bartok in their Rhapsodies) but interrupts the quick part with a slower, lyrical section in the major key. The friss returns and the tempo is further accelerated towards the brilliant conclusion. Giulio Briccialdi (1818-1881) was a virtuoso flautist, composer, instrument maker and professor at the Conservatory in Florence, Italy. He toured extensively and was known as „the Paganini of the Flute“ for his great virtuosity. He made improvements to the Boehm flute and is credited with the invention of the B-flat thumb key. He wrote many opera fantasies and other works, of which the best known is the Carnival of Venice, based on a folk-tune associated with the words „My hat, it has three corners“. Other composers including Paganini and Chopin (Souvenir de Paganini) used this popular melody. It is a tune of exteme simplicity and charm, which lends itself well to an exploration of technical fireworks on the flute. Briccialdi has exploited these to the outer limits of virtuosity. Flight of the Bumblebee is an orchestral interlude from the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), composed in 1899-1900. In the opera, the magic Swan-Bird changes Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, the Tsar’s son, into a bee in order that he may fly away to visit his father. The Flight has been transcribed for many instruments, including a famous version for piano alone by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The present arrangement for flute is by the Dutch flutist Ary van Leeuwen (1875-1953) who in his young years was solo flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic then of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1903 Gustav Mahler invited him to become principal flute at the Hofoper in Vienna, where he was the first to introduce the sliver flute. In later years he was first flute in the Cinncinnati Symphony and ended his career in Los Angeles, where he taught at the University of Southern California. -- Phillip Moll