Program notes – Rien de Reede

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Volkmar Andreae (1879–1962), Divertimento for flute and string trio, op. 43

Volkmar Andreae (1879–1962) was one of the leading personalities in Swiss musical life of the first half of the twentieth century. Like Willem Mengelberg, he was a student of Franz Wüllner at the Cologne Conservatoire. He was conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zürich from 1906 to 1949 as well as director of the Zürich Conservatoire from 1914 to 1939. Although making his name as conductor mainly with the symphonies of Bruckner, he also devoted himself considerably to the works of Debussy, Ravel and Honegger. The oeuvres of Reger and Richard Strauss were also close to his heart. His significance as conductor is perhaps best characterized by the facts that in 1911 he was asked to succeed Gustav Mahler at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (though he declined this invitation) and that the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra bestowed on him the Nicolai Medal, an honour granted until then only to Bruno Walter and Toscanini. His compositions, a small but multifaceted oeuvre, were often inspired by his conducting or by musicians with whom he worked. His Divertimento for flute and string trio, Op. 43 (1942), is for example dedicated to André Jaunet, principal flutist of the Tonhalle Orchestra, renowned teacher and soloist. Although we can also detect the German High Romanticism, the more Romanesque elements and the transparent style of writing are the features that lend to the work the character reflected in its title.

C.Ph.E. Bach (1714-1788) – Trio in D minor for two violins (flutes) and basso continuo, BWV 1036 (1731)

It was for a long time unclear as to whom the Trio, BWV 1036, should be attributed. Around 1900 Max Seiffert discovered a Trio. ex. Db/a/Violino./et./Clavecin oblig./di/Mons. Bach. He immediately linked the name of Johann Sebastian Bach to it and wrote that we should think “schon gar nicht a Phil. Emanuel” as regards this work. About thirty years later a practical edition of an arrangement for two violins and basso continuo was published from the hand of Hermann Keller as well as by Seiffert. The procedure for these arrangements, whereby the right hand of a keyboard instrument was rewritten for a second descant instrument, was a tried and tested eighteenth-century recipe. However, a few years after the appearance of this arrangement, Werner Danckert cast serious doubt on the attribution to J.S. Bach. In 1950, Wolfgang Schmieder, in his Bach-Werke-Verzeichniss, also noted “Echtheid stark angezweifelt”. In the end it was Ulrich Siegele who, in 1957, demonstrated convincingly that BWV 1036 is an early version of Trio in d moll für Flöte, Violine und Baß by C.P.E. Bach. There are great differences between the first version that saw the light of day in 1731 in Leipzig (Carl Philipp Emanuel was then 17 years old) and the second version from 1747. Only the second and third movements of BWV 1036 are to be found in the Trio, Wq. 145, as the first and second movements. The second movement of BWV 1036, Allegro, comprising 94 bars, reappears in Wq. 145 as the first movement, with the tempo indicated as Allegretto, and is arranged as a movement of 186 bars. It is impossible to go into all the differences here. What is relevant, however, is that BWV 1036 contains a first and last movement C.P.E. no longer used for the Trio, Wq. 145. For our performance Seiffert’s arrangement from 1930 was employed, which appeared in the series Veröffentlichungen der Neuen Bachgesellschaft (Year XXXI, Vol. 1). It will be obvious that a number of amendments were necessary to render this version suitable for two flutes.

Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) – Trio for two German flutes, or flute, violin and cello in C major

About eighteen years after the death of Johann Christian Bach, the music publisher/flutist and flute-maker Theobald Monzani, working in London, published two trios for two flutes (or flute and violin) and cello. The first of these was from the hand of J.C. Bach. In contrast to C.Ph.E. Bach, Johann Christian here stipulates only the cello as bass instrument. On the publication we read, These Original Trios were Composed for the Righ^t. Hon^ble. Earl of Abingdon, by whose permission they are now published. Although we know that Abingdon provided financial assistance for the Bach-Abel concerts in the late seventies, it is not impossible that they knew each other earlier. It is therefore for the time being difficult to date the Trio, which, just as the Quartets Op. 19, is dedicated to Abingdon. Both works appeared after Bach’s death. Curiously enough, C.S. Terry, J.C. Bach’s biographer, describes the poignant middle movement of this trio, an Adagio, as a ‘Minuet’

It is not inappropriate to devote a few words to Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon (1740–1799). This nonconformist politician, whose speeches in the House of Lords were characterized as ‘peculiarly eccentric’, was a passionate music-lover. He played the flute, composed and stimulated composers such as Joseph Haydn, André Erneste Grétry, Carl Friedrich Abel and Johan Christian Bach to write works for him. J.C. Bach’s Trio in C major and Haydn’s London Trio in G minor on this CD are examples of this. Abingdon was one of the sponsors of the famous Bach-Abel concerts (1765–1781) in London. This, combined with his extravagant lifestyle, resulted in such financial problems that he left considerable debts upon his death.

Michel Blavet (1700-1768) – Concerto in A minor for flute, two violins and b.c. (ca. 1740)

Michel Blavet was the most charismatic flautist in the first half of the eighteenth century in Paris. He held all important positions: not only at the Court but also in the Académie Royale de musique (the Parisian opera) and in the Concerts Spirituels. His fame went well beyond France: no one other than Frederick the Great tried to win him over for Prussia, though in vain. Quantz, who met Blavet in Paris wrote: ‘Blavet, Lucas, die beyden Brüder Braun, Naudot und einige andere, spielten die Flöte traversière: Blavet aber hatte unter diesen allen den Vorzug’. [‘Blavet, Lucas and the Braun brothers, Naudot and a few others, played the transverse flute: Blavet being the preferred amongst these.’

Blavet’s small body of compositions is particularly important for flutists. Opus 1 was a collection of sonatas for two flutes. Next to three Recueils, published between 1744 and ca. 1753, he wrote two volumes of sonatas for flute and basso continuo, Opus 2 and Opus 3. Gradually he developed a style in which Italian elements went alongside the elegance of the French music. Jean-Marie Leclair and Guignon (born as Ghignone, being of Italian origin), violinists with whom Blavet frequently played chamber music, inspired if not challenged him, to write in a more virtuoso way for his instrument. His ‘opéra bouffon’ Le Jaloux corrigé was successfully performed, partly because it met with the newly emerging taste of lightness and simplicity in musical language, a style championed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His ballet, Jeux olympiques, also generated attention.

The Concerto a 4 del Sig^re Blavet in a minor, the source of which can be found in the Badische Landesbibliothek, is in several respects a remarkable work. For the time being, we assume that this composition is of Blavet’s hand, although there is some slight doubt about his authorship. The outer movements are written in a virtuoso Italian style with numerous passages (big leaps, fast repeating notes) that would not be out of place in a violin concerto. As a slow movement figure, two purely French Gavottes in a minor and A major that might as well be a tribute to Rameau. Does the middle section – perhaps due to time constraints – derive from pre-existing ballet music?

The written-out cadenza at the end of the first movement above the dominant in the bass, gives the opportunity to the performer to liberate himself from rhythmic continuity in an imaginative way. The accompaniment by two violins and b.c. is uncommon, although more concerts without violas are known (including Corrette, Boismortier and the brothers Graun), but in particular composers of the Neapolitan school (A. Scarlatti, Barbella, Pergolesi) were fond of the Concerto a quattro. J.F. Paillard notes a kinship with Vivaldi in this concert, in part, since the basic lay-out of the outer movements contains five tutti passages and since the opening bars of the last movement are strongly reminiscent of the Estro Armonico. The year of composition of the concert is believed to be around 1740. An assumption all the more plausible given the gradual influence we know Italian music had on Blavet’s writing.

A score and parts, as well as a flute-piano reduction, is available from Broekmans & Van Poppel.

Theobald Boehm (1794-1881) – Grande Polonaise, Op. 16 (1831)
The Grande Polonaise was dedicated to Paul Hippolyte Camus, Boehm’s great promoter and business representative in France. Camus furthermore compiled the first flute method (1839) for Boehm’s ‘neu construierte Flöte'(1832), the instrument that Boehm presented to the French Académie des Beaux Arts of the Institut de France in May 1837. While others talked of ‘the new flute’ (‘la nouvelle flûte’), Camus called it a ‘flûte Boehm’. And the instrument was indeed known as this. No maker of oboes, clarinets or bassoons had been honoured in this way.
That Boehm dedicated the Grande Polonaise to ‘his friend’ Camus reflects the bond of friendship that had been formed through various meetings in Paris, but equally reflects Camus’ great capacities as a player. After being taught by Wunderlich at the Paris Conservatory, from 1819 he was first flutist at the Théâtre de la Port Saint-Martin and, after having graced various other positions, in 1836 he became first flutist at the Théâtre Italien. In the adaptation of Devienne’s flute method that he published with Meissonnier around 1829 he was referred to as ‘Camus de la Chapelle du Roi et de l’Académie rle. de Musique’. W.N. James wrote about him in A Word or Two on the Flute, “M. Camus is a very popular player of the flute in Paris […] his style is decidedly elegant.”A critic in London wrote after a concert there, “[Camus] caused some sensation by performing Boehm’s music on a Godfroy flute with a Dorus G-# key.”
There are two versions of the Grande Polonaise in existence. Opus 16[a] appeared in 1831, published by Falter in Munich, Opus 16[b] with Aulangnier in Paris around 1842. Op. 16[a] encompasses 408 bars, Op. 16[b] 314. The introduction is almost identical in the two versions. In Op. 16[b] a number of interludes by the orchestra/piano have been somewhat curtailed. Additionally, the Presto covers around a dozen bars less (from b. 371 to b. 381 in Op. 16[a]) and the conclusion in Op. 16[b] is to some extent altered. There are also differences between the two versions with regard to articulations. Raymond Meylan mentioned that the alterations and the new modulations in Op. 16[b] are well accomplished and are probably by Boehm himself.

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Theobald Boehm (1794-1881) – Variations on the German Air ‘Du, du liegst mir im Herzen’, Op. 22 (1838)
The cycle of variations ‘Du, du liegst mir im Herzen’ was written for Ludwig Stettmeyer, one of Boehm’s countless students. Stettmeyer was originally a flutist in Hechingen, and was to become a member of the court orchestra (Hoforchester) in Munich, a position he held from 1847 to 1877. Theobald Boehm also performed this work himself in 1843 in Munich at a charity concert for the poor. A critic wrote, “Einen wahren Jubel rief Böhms Zauberflöte hervor. Wie sich das liebe, gemüthliche ‘Du, du liegst mir im Herzen’ in solcher sinnigen und doch wieder Bravour-kühnen Behandlung in jede lauschende Menschenseele hineinschmiegte.” (“Real jubilation was raised by Böhm’s magic flute. The charming, cosy, ‘Du, du liegst mir im Herzen’ nestled in each listening human soul”). The German national anthem ‘Liebe und Sehnsucht’ forms the basis of this introduction, theme and variations. It is probably the most played and most successful of Boehm’s eight variation works. It can on occasion be interesting to look at some differences between Franz Schubert’s variations on ‘Ihr Blümlein alle’ from 1824 and Boehm’s Op. 22. The introductions are already different in character, due partly, of course, to the lyrics, but also because of the virtuoso traditions with which Boehm had in the meantime become acquainted. In Munich he had played during three performances by Paganini in 1829 and from all his cultural tours, which included Austria, Northern Italy, England and France, he became familiar with the ingredients to be used for a successful performance. While Boehm’s variations radiate especially his enthusiasm for virtuosity and brilliance, we encounter another concept in Schubert’s variations: “[they] emanate a totally new tonal force; they display the atmospheric individual quality of the separate variations….” The application of the concept of variation in character, a term used especially by Beethoven, can already be detected in Schubert’s work. In Boehm’s variations the piano always has an accompanying role; in a few variations Schubert allows the flute to accompany the piano. Countless other differences teach us more about both works. In this respect, Gustav Scheck’s analysis of ‘Ihr Blümlein alle…’ in Die Flöte und Ihre Musik is an informative source.

André Caplet (1878-1925) – Suite Persane for Double Wind Quintet (1900)
André Caplet wrote his Suite Persane at the request of the French oboist Georges Longy, who, together with a number of colleagues from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, had founded a wind ensemble. It is assumed that the inspiration for this work was the World Exhibition held in 1900 in Paris, at which cultures from around the world had a pavilion. Numerous composers felt attracted to the exotic sounds presented there by musicians from the Middle and Far East. Nihavend, the second movement of the Suite Persane, describes a Persian town. In Iskia Samaïsi, ecstatic fakirs dance for us. The Societé moderne d’instruments à vent, which encompassed all prominent French wind players of that era, played the piece’s première in 1901. The musical journal Le Ménestral praised especially its richness of colour. Caplet had already, in 1900, been honoured by the Société de compositeurs de musique for writing another work for wind instruments, his Quintet for Winds and Piano.

J.M. Coenen (1824-1899) – La Serenata for Flute and Piano (or Orchestra) (ca. 1863)

Johannes Meinardus Coenen was one of the most important Dutch musicians of the second half of the nineteenth century. He made his debut as bassoonist in the Hofkapel in The Hague, later to become the conductor of the Orchestra of the Paleis voor Volksvlijt on the Frederiksplein in Amsterdam. This huge cultural palace, that burned down in 1929 and made way for the present Dutch Bank (DNB), was for a long time, along with Felix Meritus, Amsterdam’s most significant centre of music, despite its infamously poor acoustics. The short Romantic work, “La Serenata’, for flute and piano (or orchestra), enjoyed great popularity in the nineteenth century. It was first performed by the well-known flutist Herman van Boom, to whom the piece was dedicated. That première for flute and orchestra, with the Netherlands’ best-known orchestra, that of Felix Meritus, would soon be followed by various other flutists. George Schoeman, for instance, performed it with the Orchestra of the Paleis voor Volksvlijt, under the composer’s baton. As is the case with Rossini’s Wilhelm Tell overture, the work begins with a solo for four cellos. The work was so popular that Coenen created various arrangements of it, including those for cello and piano and violin, cello and piano. In the Paleis voor Volksvlijt it was also performed with flute and organ. The piano part is also eminently suitable for the harp.

Alphons Diepenbrock (1862-1921) – ‘Wenn ich ihn nur habe’ for Soprano, Wind Quintet and Double Bass (1898/1915) and ‘Come raggio di sol’ for Soprano and Wind Quintet (1917)
In 1898 Alphons Diepenbrock used Novalis’ text ‘Wenn ich ihn nur habe’ for an eponymous song that he dedicated to the well-known soprano Aaltje Noorderwier. At the request of the Concertgebouw Sextet there followed in 1915 an arrangement for wind instruments, an obvious instrumentation considering the fact that the original version had been conceived for soprano and organ. Due to the various timbres of the wind instruments, the melodic pattern is more easily followed than in the original. By adding the double bass, Diepenbrock also added more profundity. The use of the oboe d’amore is in this context by no means coincidental.
The cazonetta ‘Come raggio di sol’ (poet unknown) seems to strike a lighter tone, but soon enough it becomes apparent that those rays of sunshine and happiness, too, can have a darker lining. The suffering expressed in the last sentence may reflect Diepenbrock’s sorrow at the relationship his wife had with the composer Matthijs Vermeulen. “As a mild ray of sun can rest on calm waves while in the depths of the sea a storm is brewing, so can a smile of happiness and contentment reflect on a face while secretly the wounded heart is suffering fear and pain.”
Both lyrics have mystical characteristics. Novalis was searching for more vitality, intimacy and mysticism in the ecclesiastical way of thinking: values shared by Diepenbrock, who throughout his life was in search of profundity. Although we would not do justice to Diepenbrock by calling him a disciple of Mahler, there indeed exists a great affinity between these two befriended composers.

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Ernest von Dohnányi (1877- 1960), Passacaglia for flute solo
The Passacaglia, Op. 48, No. 2, Dohnányi’s last work, is dedicated to Ellie Baker, later Eleanor Lawrence, the flutist and conductor. It is one of the few late Romantic pieces for solo flute, despite its being composed in 1959 and despite its eighteenth-century form (a phenomenon not uncommon to Dohnányi). It is pointed out in the literature that, although the first half of the passacaglia theme comprises a dodecaphonic series, the piece ends completely tonally. Some believe that this is intended ironically. This capricious, highly virtuoso variation piece includes a number of passages that rather have the violin and piano in mind. This reflects Dohnányi’s skills as a pianist, devoid of any technical impediments.

Gaetano Donizetti (Bergamo, 1797-1848, Bergamo) – Sonata per Flauto e Pianoforte (1819)
Gaetano Donizetti (Bergamo, 1797-1848, Bergamo) is above all known as an operatic composer. Along with the five years older Rossini and the four years younger Bellini, he gained great acclaim as one of the masters of the ‘bel canto’. Beside his natural talent for writing attractive melodies, he received his musical education from Johann Simon Mayr, maestro di cappella in his native Bergamo, and from Padre Stanislao Mattei, also Rossini’s teacher, at the Liceo Filharmonico in Bologna 1815-1817. While Mayr kept the heritage of the classical Viennese composers alive, Padre Mattei was known to be a great teacher of counterpoint. Returning to Bergamo late 1817, Donizetti wrote pieces for piano as well as instrumental chamber music. His nineteen string quartets, in which he could develop his skills in four-part writing, and his other chamber-music pieces were soon being played in musical salons. This facilitated contact with various wealthy families. So it came about that Marianna Pezzoli-Grattaroli, a well-to-do lady of the Bergamo high social circles, became Donizetti’s benefactor around 1818. To her Donizetti dedicated several chamber-music works, e.g. the Sonata in fa minore per Violino e Pianoforte as well as the Sonata per Flauto e Pianoforte presented here. She also helped Donizetti to avoid military service. Opera, however, became his most important musical domain for the remaining three decades of his life. Works like Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale and L’Elisir d’Amore are the best known among his seventy or so operas. Incessant travels, mainly between the opera houses of Naples, Rome and Milan, were followed in 1838 by a sojourn of some years in Paris and by his appointment, in 1842, as Kapellmeister to the Viennese court. During the last decade of his life his health slowly deteriorated, influenced by syphilis, the composers’ disease par excellence.

The one-movement Sonata per Flauto e Pianoforte is dated 1819 by Donizetti, then 22 years old. Since there are abundant mistakes in the part writing (octave parallels etc.) of the autograph, the possibility cannot be excluded that the work itself stems from a younger and less experienced Donizetti, who just added the dedication and the date on the title page when 22 years old. It is one of his few chamber-music works for a wind instrument. The piece, along with his string quartets, still reflects Donizetti’s studies of the classical composers. With its theatrical introduction, its frequent dialogues, as well as its buffo character, the sonata has, despite the limited thematic material and the simple form, assumed its own modest place in the flute literature.

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Karg-Elert (1877–1933) – Symphonische Kanzone fûr Flöte und Klavier

The personal life and musical career of Karg-Elert (1877–1933) are highly intriguing. Von Reznicek, recognizing his talent, saw to it that he was able to study composition and theory under Reinecke and Jadassohn, respectively, at the Leipzig Conservatoire. It was Grieg who recommended Karg-Elert to various publishers. Among his earlier compositions were some for the ‘art harmonium’ or reed organ, an instrument that strongly appealed to him due to its plethora of colours. In the war years he was appointed as oboist and saxophonist to a military band and thus avoided active service. Although around 1912–14 he was an avid follower of Schönberg, Skriabin and Debussy, his deepening acquaintance with the major classical composers gained through the musicians of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the military band caused these influences to fade.

‘Flustered, desperate, restless and fanciful, almost precipitous’ (‘aufgeregt, verzweifelt, unruhig und phantastisch, fast überstürtzt’): all these are expression marks used by Karg-Elert in his music. Not only with such expressions but also in his life’s work, the ‘Harmonology’, he was attempting to explore new avenues. The ‘Harmonology’ was his response to Schönberg’s dodecaphonic system and the French modes and polytonality. The title Symphonic Canzone meant that themes would to some degree be subject to development, that there was a cyclic nature through repetition of themes and their variations, and that the closing passage should be treated in a particular way, resulting in a sense of liberation (characterized here as ‘hymn-like’).

The source of inspiration for Karg-Elert’s many works for the flute written between 1915 and 1918 was the performance of the solo flutist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Carl Bartuzat. According to Karg-Elert, the ‘immeasurable technical possibilities’ of the Boehm flute – that was introduced late on in Germany – had been only rudimentarily exploited in the literature. And indeed, his ‘Caprices’, his ‘Sonata Appassionata’ for solo flute, as well the ‘Symphonic Canzone’ make infinite demands on instrumental proficiency and break new grounds.

George Enescu (1881- 1955) – Cantabile et Presto for flute and piano (1904)
Cantabile et Presto for flute and piano by the Rumanian composer George Enescu may make just claim to being French music. Enescu’s style was largely formed in his studies with Massenet and Fauré, despite the folkloristic influences of his native Rumania. Having left his homeland at seven to study the violin and piano in Vienna, Enescu went to Paris in 1894 to continue his musical education. There he took also lessons in composition. Enescu was exceptionally successful in Paris as a violinist, composer and conductor. In 1908 his Dixtuor for wind instruments inspired Jean Huré to the greatest praise. Huré went so far as to even remark that Debussy seemed to be running twenty-five years behind the composer of this music. Cantabile et Presto was written as the 1904 examination piece (and was also set in 1921 and 1940) at the Conservatoire National. Enescu choose a form for this work that had not only been used by his teacher Gabriel Fauré in a piece commissioned for the same purpose, but was also selected by many composers before and after him (among them Tulou, Gaubert and Casella): a slow introduction leading to a virtuoso second movement. The obvious aim of such is that the performer is given the opportunity of demonstrating the expressiveness of tone in the first movement and in the second his finger dexterity and articulation. A traditional form, its effect is enhanced by Enescu with unusual features. For instance, the Cantabile begins with an expressive melody in the flute’s lowest register, an extraordinary idea in flute music of that time. Alfred Cortot, who accompanied Taffanel’s flute class, was quick to point out the allure of this innovation: “What is more moving than the low notes of the flute?” The Presto presents the interchanging of scalic and chordal double-staccato passages, cascades and flourishes and short, expressively laden phrases, thus finely demonstrating the wealth of Taffanel’s new instrumental style.

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Rudolf Escher (1912-1980) – Sonata for Flute and Piano (1976-1979)

The Sonata for Flute and Piano was the last composition Escher completed. Although he had already written the second and third movements in 1976, he would not finish the first movement untill 1979. With its seven-part variation structure, the first movement of the work serves as a good example of Escher’s ‘learned music’. The canonic variation is particularly remarkable owing to the instrumentation; the antagonism between the two instruments is emphasized by juxtaposition of the lower register of the flute with the generally higher registers of the right hand in the piano. With its variation structure, this movement evokes an image also used to describe eighteenth-century counterpoint: a gemstone that reveals its various facets to the viewer only through a change in light and angle. Motivically, the second movement, a flute solo, is closely related to the last; one could, in fact, speak of a single whole were the characters of these two movements not so disparate. At the beginning of the third movement, the abrupt entrance of the piano breaks in on the ecstatic, arcadian atmosphere of the second movement, and it is astonishing to hear how some of the same motifs are completely transformed. The indication ‘con violenza’, the massive chords in the piano and the fact that the composer scores the flute mainly in the lower register, thus making use of the darker colours, are merely the outward characteristics of the oppressive atmosphere that Escher envisaged here. He stressed that this movement should never sound ‘pastoral’. The first performance of the piece was played by Rien de Reede (flute) and Theo Bles (piano), to whom the work was dedicated.

Emily Beynon and Sepp Grotenhuis recorded the Sonata in the CD-series with the complete chamber music by Rudolf Escher (Label: Etcetera)

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) – London Trio for Two Flutes and Cello in C major and G minor (1794), Hob. IV: 1 and 2

Haydn wrote in his fourth Londoner Notizbuch, ‘Den 14ten Nov. 1794 fuhr ich mit Lord Avington nach Preston, 26 Meilen von London, zum Baron von Aston; er und seine Gemahlin lieben die Musik.’ Haydn dedicated the so-called first London Trio in C major to Baron Aston. The second Trio, in G minor, was written for Lord Abingdon. It is not improbable that both trios were played during this meeting. Just as with J.C. Bach, a cello, instead of b.c., is mentioned for the instrumentation. The first movement of the second trio is based on the song ‘Trust not too much’. H.C. Robbins Landon writes: ‘The interesting and unconventional side of the melody, which has a very English flavour to it, is its breakdown into five plus five plus four bars.’

Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812) – Trio for two flutes and cello, Op. 31, No. 5 in A major (1788)

Hoffmeister’s (6) Terzetti a due flauti e violoncello, as the composer entitled the publication of his own publishing house in Vienna, appeared in 1788. Further printings followed, sometimes with other opus numbers, with Nadermann in Paris, Hummel in Amsterdam, Monzani & Hill in London and André in Offenbach. This demonstrates the popularity of the genre and of the name of the composer. ‘Bey wem, der Flöte spielt, sind nicht seine Arbeiten beliebt?’ wrote the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1800.

Frank Martin (1890–1974) – Deuxième Ballade for flute and piano or orchestra
Frank Martin wrote a number of Ballades, namely for saxophone (1938), flute (1939), piano (1939), trombone (1940), cello (1949) with orchestra or piano. There followed much later (1972) another Ballade for viola. According to Martin: “The title Ballade permits an element of poetry within a completely free musical form, and, more precisely, epic poetry, but then without any pretence of an allusion to a literary theme. It is the transposition into the domain of pure music of something which in poetry would count as a tale or a dramatic narrative.” The Deuxième Ballade pour Flûte et Piano ou Flûte, Orchestre à cordes, Piano et Batterie, discovered by Maria Martin in 2008, is an adaptation by the composer himself of the Ballade für Alt-Saxophon, Streichorchester, Klavier, Pauken und Schlagzeug. Making frequent use of the instrument’s extreme registers, it is (according to the composer) marked ‘sometimes elegiac, then again ecstatic’.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) -Le merle noir
For Olivier Messiaen the doctrines of Catholic faith and ornithology were the two most important sources of inspiration for his music. The new compositional system he conceived and developed, outlined in his book Technique de mon langage musical (1942) arose from the anti-symphonic thinking espoused by Debussy in Mr. Croche. The symphonic genre owed its existence to the inherent tension and release of tonal harmony. Messiaen’s harmony however is decorative rather than functional to the structural development of his music. His system of ‘modes of limited transposition’ is more static as it does not group harmonies to generate complexes of tension and release. In these modes the octave is divided in two, three or four identical intervals; each interval is in turn subdivided in identical whole or half-toner relationships. The third mode, for example, employed by Messiaen in Le Merle Noir, divides the octave in three equal groups of one whole and two half tones (c – d – e flat – e – f sharp – g – a flat – b flat – b – c).Regarding rhythm, Messiaen was strongly influenced by ancient Indian writings. The most singular characteristic of his rhythmic usage is the a-metrical character arising from the ‘added value’ (valeur ajoutée) principle; i.e. prolonging the duration of a given note or rest by adding to it a shorter note or rest. Rhythm is thus freed from the tyranny of regular metre. Messiaen’s highly in dividual musical language is immediately recognizable in his larger works (such as L’ascension, Couleurs de la cité céleste, Oiseaux exotiques and Catalogue d’Oiseaux) and chamber pieces (such as Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps and Le Merle Noir).Le Merle Noir was composed in 1951 for the Conservatoire National examination. It was by no means the first bird music to enter in the flute repertoire: Messiaen was proceeded by Couperin and Vivaldi, for example with Le Rossignol en amour and Il Gardellino, respectively.Le Merle Noir is simple in form: A (flute solo – style oiseau), B (homophonic song), transition, A1 (flute solo), B1 (song, flute and piano in canon), transition, Coda (bird chorus). The tone material of a part of the B1 section is identical to that used by Jolivet in his fourth Incantation (1936). Was this coincidence or could it have been Messiaen’s tribute to his Jeune France companion?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) – Andante für eine Walze in eine kleine Orgel, KV 616 (1791), arranged for two flutes (flute, violin), viola and cello by Rien de Reede.

The music written by W.A. Mozart in the last year of his life, 1791, for the mechanical organ of Count Joseph Deym’s Vienna Panopticum was intended for the so-called Bedchamber of the Graces. In this there was to be found a ‘sanft beleuchtetes Bett mit einer schönen Schlafenden und hinter derselben ertönt die entzückendste Musik, die für den Ort und die Vorstellung eigens komponiert wurde.’ The music of this Flötenuhr (Musical clock), which possesses not only grace but also some drama, would no longer be available for the listener if it were not to be played by one or more instruments. So it is that arrangements exist for various combinations of instruments. Only in the Museum of Musical Instruments in Leipzig is there still a mechanical instrument (No. 2052) on which this small masterpiece can be heard, though without development.

Broekmans & Van Poppel published this arrangement.

Goffredo Petrassi (1904-2003) – Souffle
The solo piece for flute, alto flute and piccolo (one player), Souffle, was written in 1969. Severino Gazzelloni, the dedicatee, premièred the piece during the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Royan in March 1969. Composers such as Luigi Nono (1952), Luciano Berio (1957, 1958), Niccolò Castiglioni (1960) and Bruno Maderna (1961) changed the conventional language of the flute, creating a whole new universe of sounds, and Severino Gazzelloni became their prophet. The new music for flute, often premièred in Darmstadt and gradually coming to be called mainly Gazzelloni-Musik, introduced a completely new concept of virtuosity for the instrument, consisting of large leaps, extreme dynamics, rhythmic novelties and the use of effects such as flutter tongue, key clicks, harmonics, simultaneous playing/singing, and so forth.
Souffle introduces the sound of blown air as a new element in a piece for flute. Neutral air, air at a prescribed pitch, flutter tongue which becomes air and air that becomes normal sound are among the different possibilities. Petrassi’s atonal language (interrupted regularly by the ‘forbidden material’ of the chromatic scale) forms gestures rather than phrases. There seems to be no unifying element, either in the tone material or in rhythmic structures. This form of athematicism would be characteristic of Petrassi’s musical language from ca. 1958 onwards. In Souffle, ‘soffio’ is the unifying element. Indications as ‘esitante’, ‘scherzando’ impose a rhetorical character on some passages. Petrassi just uses the three instruments to enlarge the overall compass of the piece; he doesn’t prescribe different characters to piccolo, flute or alto flute.

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Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) – Sonata for flute and piano (1956/57)
The première of Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, dedicated to the memory of Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge, was played by Jean-Pierre Rampal accompanied by the composer in 1957 in Strasbourg. Poulenc began working on the piece shortly after completing his large opera Le Dialogue des Carmélites and there is a clear harmonic and melodic relationship between the two. The first movement -in three sections- opens in e minor but closes with a Schubertesque major-minor dilemma. Here the piano part, richly laden with Alberti basses, serves principally as accompaniment. It maintains this status in the second movement., which after a two bar canonic introduction begins with a subtle yet exceedingly rhythmically simple melody that bears a close resemblance to the aria of soeur Constance in Le Dialogue des Carmélites. The third movement abounds in sudden shifts between biting staccato and warm legato passages, characterized by such terms as très mordant and mélancolique. Interwoven is a reference to the first movement – a technique Poulenc also incorporated in the sonatas for clarinet and for oboe. Unlike the first two movements, in the third movement the flute and the piano engage in an incisive dialogue.

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Max Reger (1873–1916) – Burlesque, Minuet, Gigue from the Suite, Op. 103a
Max Reger was largely indebted to Hugo Riemann for his training. Riemann was an extremely systematic teacher. It was from him that Reger drew his belief in tradition and professionalism as opposed to the then fashionable, romantic concept of inspiration. For Reger, who even as a small boy had been improvising on the organ, harmony and counterpoint were virtually inextricably bound together. This led to his being called ‘the second Bach’. His musical style is marked by chromatic harmony often cast in forms from the Baroque and Classical periods (fugues and variations, for example). Living in the Late Romantic period, Reger was not aspiring to a break with tradition but rather to an extension of the musical boundaries. It is significant that composers such as Hindemith, Schönberg and Berg studied his works with admiration. In November 1908 Henri Marteau played the première of Reger’s Suite (or the Sechs Stücke) in A minor with the composer at the piano. The same violinist had played Reger’s violin concerto a month earlier with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Nikisch. Reger had his publisher transpose the Burlesque, the Minuet and the Gigue from his Suite, Op. 103a, to render these pieces suitable for the flute. In October 1908 he corrected this transposed version, in the process altering almost all the original slurs.

Rhené-Baton (1879-1940) – Passacaille (1924)
Rhené-Baton – actually, René Baton – was both a conductor (of for example the Concerts Lamoureux, the Concerts Pasdeloup, and the Opéra Comique in Paris) and a composer. As a composer he left behind a varied oeuvre that is distinguished by its inventive harmonic colouring and the touches of rhythmic and structural innovation. His Passacaille pour Flûte et Orchestra (ou Piano) op. 35 is one of the many compositions dedicated to Louis Fleury. With the Passacaille Rhené-Baton took his place amongst many twentieth-century composers who showed an interest in the old dance forms; among them Franck, Ravel and Reger. The passacaille is generally grouped together with the chaconne, both being in ternary meters and bearing strong similarities in form and character. The passacaille, however, is only a dance while the chaconne is simultaneously sung and danced. The most important distinction between the two, however, is that the chaconne is composed on a continuously repeated bass theme of usually four or eight bars; in the passacaille only the rhythm of this (often a minim followed by a crotchet) is retained. Furthermore, the passacaille is less often animated then the chaconne and is usually composed in a minor key – f minor in Rhené-Baton’s composition.

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Albert Roussel (1869-1937) – Andante et Scherzo pour flûte et piano, Op. 51 (1934).

Roussel’s Andante et Scherzo, Op. 51, from 1934, was dedicated to Georges Barrère, who premièred the work in Milan in that same year with the composer at the piano. The emphasis in the Andante is on the harmonic complexity, while the Scherzo is marked by nimbleness that forms a sharp contrast to this. The listener will be unaware of the rhythmic simplicity in the piece; Roussel wrote almost only semiquavers, quavers and crotchets.

Albert Roussel (1869-1937) – Joueurs de Flûte pour flûte et piano
In August 1922 Albert Roussel wrote the French flutist Louis Fleury: rest assured, I have not forgotten the piece for flute but am merely taking time to reflect on and fashion what it is I should like to do. Two years later, Fleury (1878-1928) an undefatigable champion of the new repertoire for his instrument, was well rewarded for his patience with an original cycle of four portraits of flautists: Joueurs de Flûte, op. 27. Accompanied by the pianist Janine Weill, Fleury gave the première on 17 January 1925 at the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier. The cycle is opened by Pan, a god of Greek mythology who is enamored of the nymph Syrinx. She tries to escape him and transforms herself into a bundle of reed. Seeking to vent his sorrow pan cuts into the reed, making a flute of it. The movement is characterized by its use of the old modes (Dorian, among others), streotypical pan-flute flourishes, and the fast broken chords in the brief middle section, which depict the ‘panic’ caused by the deity. Tityre (Tityrus) is a peaceful flute-playing shepherd mentioned for example in the verse of the latin poet Virgil. In a conversation with the less fortunate Meliboeus he praises the god that allowshim to freely graze his herd, thus permitting him to play his flute at will. The flute-playing Indian god Krishna enchanted all with the beauty of his music. Like the Arcadian Pan who sought warmth among the nymphs, Krishna shared his love with the gopid (shepherdesses) in Brindaban. Roussel’s Krishna employs a scale that is identical to the Shri raga (a -b flat – c sharp- d sharp- e – f – g sharp) and abandons the typically Western regularity of pulse with a 7/8 metre.Mr. de la Péjaudie, the eighteenth-century bon vivant of Henri de Régnier’s novel La Pécheresse, is admired for his flute playing and savoir-vivre but in the end reviled for his overly colourful lifestyle. After the sad end that comes to one of his many romances he is condemned to the galleys where he later dies by drowning.Roussel dedicated these four pieces to respectively Marcel Moyse, Gaston Blanquart, Louis Fleury and Philippe Gaubert.

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) – Concertino for flute, viola and double bass
Schulhoff’s own description of this piece is worth reading: “The accompaniment (of viola and double bass) in the beginning of the first movement (8/4-metre) is borrowed from Russian-Orthodox litany. Over this (as often in old Slavonic song) lies a floating melody in the flute. The second movement (as a Scherzo) is in the form of a ‘beseda’, a national Czech dance, which as its main element uses a ‘furiant’ tempo. The theme of the slow movement (4/4 + 3/4), after a Carpathian-Russian love song, played unchanged – after each other – by each instrument, always appears in an ornamented frame of two voices. The last movement is a Rondino after a song of a Carpathian-Russian bear driver, of which the second part consists of a Slovakian shepherd theme in the flute accompanied by an ostinato figuration of the viola and the double bass. The whole piece is just a piece of popular music as is in use in the eastern part of the Czech Republic, where it is usual for people to sing in gay minor tonalities and dance to these. In the Concertino you find most of all gaiety, with a harmonic construction in Phrygian, Lydian and Mixolydian church modes. The origin of this piece lays in a peasant gathering of dancing/singing Czechs, Hanachs, Slovaks, Magyars and Carpathian-Russians which I [Schulhoff] attended in the city of Brno.”

From: Erwin Schulhoff, Schriften, pp. 86-88. (English by Rien de Reede, corrected by G. Matham)

Carl Stamitz (1746–1801) – Trio à deux flutes traversières et basse, Op. 14, No. 4 in G major (ca. 1778)

The Amsterdam publisher Hummel mentions Stamitz’s Op. 14 for the first time in his 1778 catalogue. The trios are mentioned besides works for he same instruments by Gra(a)f, Schwindl and Wendling; musicians who, as Carl Stamitz, worked for a shorter or longer period at the court of William V in The Hague. Stamitz’ sojourn in The Hague (1779?-1784) simplified his contact with the wellknown publisher Hummel (The Hague and Amsterdam), who printed a number of his works, among them the often played Concerto for flute in G major.

Joseph Hartmann Stuntz (1793-1859) – Adagio from the Concerto per il flauto di nuova costruzione (1834/36) also published as Th. Boehm – Élégie
This minor work by Boehm’s instrumentation teacher was for a long time regarded as an original composition by Theobald Boehm. It saw the light of day in 1880 entitled ‘Élégie’ with an inexplicable opus number, 47. Boehm was to some extent responsible for the confusion because he had noted on the material that he had offered to the Schott publishing house, “Adagio, Componirt für Flöte von Th. Boehm; mit Begleitung des großen Orchesters von Kapellmeister H. Stuntz. Mit pianoforte Begleitung.” However, the material actually comprises the slow movement of Stuntz’s ‘Concerto per il flauto di nuova costruzione’, i.e. the conical ring-key flute that Boehm had designed in 1832. Joseph Hartmann Stuntz (1793-1859) had been a student of Peter von Winter and Antonio Salieri and therefore had benefited from a solid education in composition. He was Kapelmeister to the Munich Court from 1823 to 1837.

© Rien de Reede

Theodoor Verhey (1848-1929) – Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D Minor (ca. 1898)
The (first) Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D Minor by Theodoor Verhey, composed around 1898, is a concerto that still graces the repertoire of many flutists, including Jacques Zoon and Patrick Gallois. The piece was dedicated to Ary van Leeuwen, undoubtedly the best-known Dutch flutist of that era. He played, for instance, in the Berlin Philharmonic and later in the Vienna Hofoper under Gustav Mahler. The concerto was premièred around 1899 by the then 18-year-old Jacques van Lier and the Rotterdam orchestra Symphonia. Just as his teacher, Ary van Leeuwen, Jacques van Lier would later be appointed to the Vienna Hofoper and the Vienna Philharmonic. The piece gained immediate popularity in the first half of the last century. To name just a few performances: Karel Willeke, the former solo flutist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, played it, as did Albert Fransella, who introduced the work in London in the version with piano as well as in that with orchestra. Koos Verheul also performed it with the Residentie Orchestra (The Hague). The concerto comprises three movements which merge into each other. The influence of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms can clearly be heard. Brahms’ imprint is especially recognizable in the last movement, which is influenced by his Hungarian Dances.

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The work is published in the Flute Series of Broekmans & Van Poppel. The orchestral material may be rented from Broekmans.