Georg Philipp Telemann - Twelve Fantasias, for Transverse Flute without Bass (2005)

Telemann has written a lot of music, but these Fantasias are ones I have not heard for a long time. This is music where the performer is completely exposed and Masahiro Arita does a great job.

"Masahiro Arita was born in 1949 and graduated with top honours from Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1972. In the same year, he won the first prize at the prestigious Mainichi Music Competition. He subsequently enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels and studied flauto traverso under Barthold Kuijken, graduating with the premier prix in 1975. Also in 1975, he was awarded the first prize in the flauto traverso category at the Bruges International Music Competition. In 1977, he gained the soloist diploma with supreme honours at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague.

"He has gained a worldwide reputation as one of the world's foremost performers of the flauto traverso, and has appeared as a soloist with Frans Brüggen's Orchestra of the 18th Century and Trevor Pinnock's English Concert. Amongst his many appearances, Arita has performed in chamber music concerts with Trevor Pinnock and Rachel Podger in 1999 and 2001 on tour in Japan. Furthermore, in 2001, Mr Arita was invited to participate at the National Flute Association Convention, and performed in some recitals which were received with enormous enthusiasm. In the summer 2002, he will return to Bruges International Music Competition to participate as a member of jury." (Source: NEC Navigates Japan's Classical Music Artists)

Track List:

1. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.1 in A major, TWV.40:2
2. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.2 in A minor, TWV.40:3
3. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.3 in B minor, TWV.40:4
4. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.4 in B flat major, TWV.40:5
5. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.5 in C major, TWV.40:6
6. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.6 in D minor, TWV.40:7
7. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.7 in D major, TWV.40:8
8. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.8 in E minor, TWV.40:9
9. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.9 in E major, TWV.40:10
10. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.10 in F sharp minor, TWV.40:11
11. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.11 in G major, TWV.40:12
12. Fantasias (12), for flute, TWV 40:2-13: No.12 in G minor, TWV.40:13

Download Links: Enjoy the Music, or here.

Other recordings featuring Masahiro Arita:

• A Portrait of Baroque Flute / Masahiro Arita
• Handel: Complete Flute Works
• Italian Baroque Flute Music
• Telemann: Twelve Fantasias, for Transverse Flute without Bass
• Rameau: Pièces de clavecin en concerts (pieces for harpsichord with one violin or flute, and one viola da gamba or second violin, arranged in five "concerts")
• Vivaldi: 6 Concerti for Traverse Flute (Denon)
• La Flute de Pan 
• Georg Philipp Telemann: Quatuors Parisiens

Beethoven - 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano (1972)

One of those forgotten minor gems by Beethoven. Long out of print and no complete recording by anyone currently available. The Musical Heritage Society had a penchant for releasing stuff like this. Sadly many of their older recordings have never been re-issued.

Liner Notes:

In a letter dated March, 1819, to his close friend Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven, in speaking of the recently completed monumental Hammerklavier Sonata, wrote, "The Sonata was composed under distressful circumstances, for it is hard to write almost for the sake of bread alone, and to this pass I have come." Indeed, in almost all the Beethoven letters of this period, one comes across the same complaint in various forms; namely, that the composer was compelled to do a lot of "scribbling" for the sake of money in order to procure leisure for great works. In addition to the hackwork, some of the "distressful circumstances" mentioned above included the tragically drawn-out legal suit Beethoven was bringing against his widowed sister-in-law in order to gain custody of his nephew Karl. Admirers of the composer's genius are rarely surprised, therefore, at the outbursts of demonic strength exhibited in some of the major works of the 1818-23 period: it is almost as if Beethoven were seeking some sort of heroic release from the pitiful circumstances of his private life.

And yet, a selfish posterity is grateful for the pitiful circumstances which compelled Beethoven to seek release in his art. It is even grateful that the composer had "to write almost for the sake of bread alone," for to the group of hackwork "scribblings" dating from this period we owe one of Beethoven's most charming and uncharacteristic works, the Ten Varied Themes for Pianoforte with optional accompaniment of flute or violin, Op. 107. The history of this delicious masterpiece in small is as follows:

On January 1, 1816, Beethoven's English publisher George Thomson wrote the composer and asked him to send him some specimen airs from Germany, Poland, Russia, the Tyrol, Venice, and Spain. Previously, Beethoven had done some work on selected British airs for Thomson and this had stimulated his interest in this particular branch of music. Thus had the idea come into being of some arrangements for trio of the folksongs of various nationalities. Beethoven was delighted with Thomson's request and on the following July 8th, sent him eighteen such airs, following this up shortly afterwards with one more.

According to C. B. Oldman ("Beethoven's Variations on National Themes: Their Composition and First Publication," Music Review, XII, 1951, pp. 45-51—summarized as one of Elliot Forbes' emendations to the masterly Thayer biography, Vol. II, p. 716), Thomson's subsequent request that Beethoven construct six potpourri overtures "for the pianoforte with these melodies as a basis" was humorously rejected by the composer. A later request from another publisher, Birchall, for "variations for favorite English, Scottish, and Irish airs," also came to nothing. Finally, on June 25, 1817, Thomson offered 72 ducats for variations (not more than eight) on any twelve of the airs "in an agreeable style and not too difficult."

When Beethoven finally answered (on February 21, 1818), it was with a counter-proposal that he compose twelve themes with variations either separately or simultaneously with twelve potpourri overtures, for the sum of 224 ducats.

Thomson's reply was to the effect that the composer could choose the majority of his themes from the Scottish airs which he already had harmonized and add a flute part ad libitum to the accompaniment. The publisher added, rather naively: And it would be quite desirable if you wrote the variations in a style that is familiar and easy and a bit brilliant, so that the majority of our ladies may play them and relish them." Whatever Beethoven may have thought of his publisher's advice, we know from the music that he complied with Thomson's requests to the letter, composing in all sixteen Themes and Variations on folk-song material. According to Thayer, six of them were published by Artaria in Vienna (Op. 105) and the other ten by Simrock in Bonn. (Op. 107).

In 1941, Breitkopf and Härtel brought out the numbers of Op. 107 in a rather expensive five-volume set (2 themes apiece). This is to be regretted, as the interested student, listener, and/or performer has no alternative, if he wishes to obtain the work, but to acquire Volume 19 of the Breitkopf Complete Works or the separate Breitkopf edition (which, incidentally, is difficult to get hold of). Possibly this accounts for the relative neglect which Beethoven's folk-song potpourris have been subjected to since their initial appearance. As was mentioned earlier, Op. 107 is a lovely and delightful work, made doubly interesting by the massive opus (the Hammerklavier) which it chronologically follows. In other words, it is fascinating to compare the piano writing, the emotional and technical resources of the folk-song potpourris to the deliberate aesthetic of the flawed masterpiece composed almost simultaneously with them. In the Hammerklavier, Beethoven, as had previously been the case with the Eroica Symphony, consciously tried to break with his artistic past and create something grander, more stirring, more resourceful than he had hitherto produced. Thus, to a friend who told the composer early in 1818 how moved he had been by a performance of the youthful Septet, Op. 20, Beethoven replied ". . . at that time [i.e. the year Op. 20 first appeared] I scarcely knew how to compose. Now [with the production of Op. 106] I am much more knowledgable." (!) One is reminded of Beethoven's remark after the composition of the great C sharp minor String Quartet: "Thank God there is less a lack of fancy than before!"

Thank God, too, that he saw fit to "relax" artistically, so to speak, after his most ambitious creations. To this "fancy" we owe the brilliant piano writing, the lovely flute/violin embellishments, the daring (extremely so) harmonic touches to be found in the Ten Varied Themes. Of the three versions in which the work may be found —piano solo, piano with violin or flute accompaniment—this writer prefers the one recorded here, as the piano/ flute combination generally called forth Beethoven's most exquisite coloristic experiments. For example, the careful listener should pay particular attention to the alternations of B Flat/C Flat in the opening variation of the ninth set and to the later alternations of FAG Flat in the same movement. The crowning variation of the entire work is unquestionably the penultimate one, which contains florid piano writing (Adagio espressivo) comparable to the great variation sets that followed: namely, the slow movements of Opp. 109, 111, and the Variations Nos. 29-31 of the Diabelli set. Altogether, an unjustly neglected representative of the composer's "unbuttoned" (the word is Beethoven's own) artistic moods.

MARK GANTT

Credits:

• Warren Thew, Piano
• Raymond Meylan, Flute

Track List:

1. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - I Air Tyrolian
2. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - II Air Ecossais
3. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - III Air de la Petite Russie
4. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - IV Air Ecossais
5. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - V Air Tyrolian
6. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - VI Air Ecossais
7. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - VII Air Russe
8. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - VIII Air Ecossais
9. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - IX Air Ecossais
10. 10 Varied Themes for Flute and Piano - X Air Ecossais

Download Link: Enjoy the Music!

Other Recordings by these Performers:

• Max Kuhn, Joseph Haydn: Piano Concertos
• Piano Concertos by Joseph Haydn & Max Kuhn
• Bernard Reichel: Intrada, Pièce concertante, Suite de danses, Suite pour orchestre de chambre
• Bernard Reichel: Concertino pour piano et orchestre; Rhapsodie pour flûte et orchestre; Sonata en trio; Octuor
• Oeuvres de Bernard Reichel

Boulez, Haubenstock-Ramati, Maderna - The New Music, Vol 2 (1968)

The term "modern music" no longer suffices to describe the latest expressions of recent avant-garde composers. Modern music still means the music that came after Debussy and Strauss. It is Stravinsky and Ravel, Hindemith and Falla; it is Bartók, Prokofieff, Britten and Malipiero. Modern music is the breakdown of tonality and traditional harmony and the development of the twelve-tone system by the masters of the Viennese school—Schönberg, Berg and Webern—and the spreading of this method in every country since the war. Modern music is still Dallapiccola and Petrassi, and the ready listener has little by little grown accustomed to all these expressions—the more recent ones (those relating to the relinquishing of traditional tonality) with somewhat greater difficulty.

But the works of the latest generation, those composers who have come to the fore since Hiroshima, seem to cut away violently from this pattern, as difficult as its acceptance had proved to be. So, for them the term "new music."

The evolution which has led to today's baffling results is governed by an inner logic. Once the use of the twelve-tone "series" was firmly established, the desire quite naturally arose to extend this serialization process to the other "parameters" of music, that is, to subject its rhythmic, timbral and dynamic aspects to the same laws governing the disposition of the pitch of the notes.

"Structuring" (the organization of musical material) by means of total serialization of parameters was the first step the new music took beyond Webern. This extension of the serialization process to all parameters brought about a heightening of interest and investigation into the qualities and components of sound. The increased concern for this "tone color" and other hitherto unstructured aspects of sound and the diminishing interest in pitch as the primary structural element made it necessary to alter traditional listening habits. Where pitch distribution had been the primary expressive unit, now the other parameters took on equal or greater importance.

The new music, like all other forms of contemporary art, may or may not be liked, but its consistency cannot be questioned. There is an inner logic which has determined the various phases described above and which is already creating others in more and more rapid succession, and they must not be taken as gratuitous and unrestrained expressions of individual extravagance.

Pierre Boulez was born in Montbrison (Loire) in 1925; he studied science, and then music, first with Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger, then at the Paris Conservatory with Olivier Messiaen, who revealed the possibilities of a new music, inculcating him with his own interest in rhythmic organization and modal harmony. In 1945-46 Boulez was introduced to the twelve-tone system by Rene Leibowitz. He also worked for some time in Pierre Schaeffer's "musique concrète" studio at the French Radio. In 1948 he was named music director of J. L. Barrault's repertory company and in 1954 founded the Domaine Musical concert series, in which the new music was first introduced into France. From 1960 to 1963 he taught musical analysis at the Basel Conservatory; he was then appointed chief conductor of the Südwestfunk Orchester, Baden-Baden. Currently he divides his time between composing and conducting. He has written works for a variety of vocal and instrumental forces, solos and ensembles.

Boulez was one of the first and most lucid composers to recognize the distinct difference in artistic approach between Schönberg and Webern. He took the lead from the latter in order to transcend traditional dodecaphony and forge ahead toward the new ideal of a "structure" through the total serialization of all aspects of the composition. This ideal he fostered and sustained not only in his own music but also as a conductor and through his teaching and writings. But Boulez by no means holds himself up as a leveler of music's historical evolution; on the contrary, he has roots firmly planted in tradition.

Sonatine was composed in 1946 and is therefore an early work, whose style the composer has already left far behind in the course of his unceasing evolution. The serial organization is orthodox. but the work preserves intact its prodigious freshness and originality. It displays the almost insolent vigor of youth, rhythmic hustle and a self-willed determination of form which forces the various episodes (basically three, with a middle scherzando) into the framework of a single, uninterrupted, intensely taut movement. The relative brevity of the composition should not deceive. It is brevity through compression, and the framework seems on the verge of bursting, such is the compactness and intensity of its material. The flute is used in a strange and savage way, with prodigious leaps, in sudden volleys bristling with peaks and points and constant rhythmic jolts. And yet it attains a fusion of tone color and an interplay with the piano that is quite miraculous.

Roman Haubenstock-Ramati was burn in 1919 in Cracow; he studied philosophy and musicology at the universities of Cracow and Lwów and composition under Artur Malawski and Josef Koffler. Head of the music section of Radio Cracow between 1947 and 1950, he then became an Israeli citizen and was put in charge of the State Music Library in Tel Aviv. Since 1956 he has lived mostly in Vienna, where he is consultant to Universal Edition. His principal compositions include Recitative and Aria, for harpsichord and orchestra (1954); Les Symphonies de timbres, composed in 1957 in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel; Credentials, for speech-voice and eight players (1960), and various electronic works.

Interpolation was written in 1958 for the Darmstadt summer course, to be played by Severino Gazzelloni. It varies in length from a minimum of four to a maximum of twelve minutes, depending upon whether it is played by one flute or by two or three; by recording the different versions, which are superimposed in succeeding layers, one soloist can perform the one for three flutes, as in this recording.

The piece consists of six "formants"—brief melodic elements, provided with variants—which are performed as originally formulated, or in reverse, shifting from one to the other in accordance with the indications of certain arrows and dotted lines in the score. The distribution of "formants"—their duration, juxtaposition and superposition—is free and is to be decided by the interpreter. The aleatory principle is here placed at the disposal of what might be termed a study of melody. All the technical resources of the instrument are called for in the invention of jagged melodic figures. When two or three flutes start to be heard, two-part song effects appear; the work ends in an onrush of extremely lively twitterings, like the flight of birds.

Bruno Maderna was born in Venice in 1920; he studied composition with Alessandro Bustini and Malipiero and conducting with Guarnieri and Scherchen. He received his degree in composition in Rome in 1941. His activities have included teaching summer classes in Darmstadt, a series of open lectures in twelve-tone composition at the Milan Conservatory (1957-58) and, with Luciano Berio, the direction of the Studio di Fonologia Musicale at Milan Radio. By establishing himself as one of the prominent conductors of the younger generation he has rendered an important and inestimable service in the dissemination of the new music. These activities, however, have not stopped hint from composing, where he reveals a poetic feeling, an elemental delight in the materials of sound and a typically Italian lyricism, capable of moving unscathed through the temptations of highly abstruse theories and modern experimentations. Many of his works employ conventional instruments; others combine these with magnetic tapes, and still others are purely electronic.
The Oboe Concerto was written in 1962 and dedicated to Lothar Faber. In the introduction, in pointillistic style, the oboe's isolated notes are combined with equally isolated notes in strings, then in piano, harp and celesta. After a short, restless orchestral interlude the first of the six cadenzas of which the Concerto is composed appears, punctuated by the orchestra. Except for an episode in the second cadenza where percussion is active and one passage in the fifth cadenza where the strings gain the advantage, the cadenzas are almost always consonant with the poetic and melancholy mood of the oboe timbre. Neither the severity of the structures nor the limited areas of aleatory freedom left to the conductor (mostly involving the length of some of the bands of sound or one or two percussion interludes) succeed in even slightly marring the work's inner quality of expression. It might be described as even romantic, firmly rooted in the instrumental timbre of the oboe and the English horn, which replaces the oboe in the final cadenza.

Adapted from notes by MASSIMO MILA

Track List:

Boulez

1. Sonatine for Flute and Piano (12:58)

Severino Gazzelloni, Flute
Frederick Rzewski, Piano

Haubenstock-Ramati

2. Interpolation, Mobile for Flute (1, 2 and 3) (4:51)

Severino Gazzelloni, Flute

Maderna

3. Concerto for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra (18:48)

Lothar Faber, Oboe
Soloists of the Rome Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Maderna, Conductor

Download Link: Enjoy the Music!

Recordings of music by Pierre Boulez:

• Boulez: Pierre Boulez Edition
• Boulez conducts Boulez
• Pierre Boulez: Rituel / Eclat / Multiples - Ensemble InterContemporain / BBC Symphony Orchestra
• Pierre Boulez: Répons / Dialogue de l'Ombre Double (20/21 series)
• Pierre Boulez Conducts His Own Works
• Boulez: Sur Incises; Messagesquisse; Anthèmes 2

 Recordings of music by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati:

• Roman Haubenstock-Ramati: Cathédrale
• Maggi Payne - The Extended Flute - works by Payne, David Behrman, William Brooks, Mark Trayle and Roman Haubenstock-Ramati
• Igor Stravinsky / Roman Haubenstock-Ramati / Gottfried von Einem: String Quartets - Alban Berg Quartett
• Cope/Bräm/Haubenstock-Ramati/Lorentzen/Kaczynski (Vienna Modern Masters)

Recordings of music by Bruno Maderna:

• Maderna: Quadrivium; Aura; Biogramma
• Bruno Maderna: For Strings
• Satyricon
• Bruno Maderna: Musica Elettronica
• Bruno Maderna: Oboe Concertos
• Maderna: Orchestral Works

Jean-Pierre Rampal and René Bartoli - Music for Flute and Guitar (1967)

Jean-Pierre Rampal has long been my favorite flutist and this is an LP that I have had in my personal collection from the 70s. This is just delightful music, delightfully and skillfully played. Liner notes below.

 

In our electronic age, the average man usually experiences live music as part of an audience in a concert hall, with the performer separated from him by the footlights and proscenium arch of a stage. This is, and has long been, a perfectly normal state of musical affairs, and most of today's music patrons accept it without question.
But there was a time when music was a far more intimate affair, when small groups gathered in salons and drawing rooms of private homes or in the halls of great palaces to hear music of perhaps more immediate impact. From the time of the Renaissance well into the age of Romanticism, music making was a unique participation experience almost unimaginable to today's dial-twisting music lover. To bring music into the courts of the mighty, there were, of course, geniuses of the caliber of Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. But throughout Europe, in homes great and small, amateur music making was of an unusually high order, often on a par with the best professional talent of the day.

 

Most favored for such "home" entertainment was undoubtedly a keyboard instrument—clavier, harpsichord, or, during the latter part of the 18th century, the pianoforte. But a variety of other less mechanically elaborate instruments vied with the keyboard for popularity, and among these were the guitar and the flute.

 

The flute has existed since the earliest times, and its dulcet tones have never failed to fall sweetly upon the ears of shepherd and aristocrat alike. The instrument underwent countless improvements until, in the 17th and 18th centuries, it had reached such a sophisticated stage that the famous flutist Johann Joachim Quantz could publish, in 1752, an entire book devoted to the subject of flute playing (Versuch einer Anweisung die Flute traversiere zu spielen). The modern flute was perfected in 1847.

 

The history of the guitar, while perhaps not as venerable as that of the flute, is nevertheless long and distinguished. Prototypes of the modern guitar have been traced back to ancient Egypt, and it is thought that the instrument came to Europe by way of the Orient via the Moorish occupation of Spain. The five-course "Spanish" guitar was introduced into France in the 17th century by Italian actors. Then, in the middle of the 18th century, six single strings were substituted for the five pairs of strings, and the modern guitar began to take final form.

 

As popular as were the flute and guitar during the 18th century, surprisingly little music was written for this particularly agreeable combination of instruments. In this album, two of Europe's most celebrated artists, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Rene Bartoli, demonstrate the tonal and stylistic compatibility of these two instruments in a program of music similar to those performed in salons of music connoisseurs of the 18th century.

 

*   *   *

 

Jean-Baptiste Loeillet (1680-1730) was born in Ghent and spent five years, from 1705 to 1710, in 7 London, where he played the flute and oboe in the orchestra of the Queen's Theatre. His style is less typical of French music than of Italian, and it contains elements of what has been called "Handelian solidity."

 

Robert de Visée (1650-1725) was a French guitarist, singer and composer who served many years as chamber musician to King Louis XIV, at whose court he succeeded in making the guitar more popular than the lute. Like Quantz, he was an author, publishing two instruction books on the art of the guitar.

 

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1828) has been called "the most renowned of Italian guitarists and one of the most brilliant guitar virtuosos the world has known. He spent the years 1807-1821 in Vienna, during which time his musicianship was much admired by Ludwig van Beethoven; and his style reflects a strong Viennese influence.

 

Track List:

 

JEAN-BAPTISTE LOEILLET: SONATA IN A MINOR FOR FLUTE AND GUITAR, OP. 1, NO. 1

1. Adagio (2:47)
2. Allegro (3:26)
3. Adagio (2:39)
4. Gigue (2:03)

ROBERT DE VISEE: SUITE IN D MINOR FOR GUITAR (7:55)

5. Prelude
6. Sarabande
7. Gavotte
8. Menuets I
9. Menuet II
10. Bourrée

MAURO GIULIANI: GRAND SONATA IN A MAJOR FOR FLUTE AND GUITAR, OP. 85

11. Andante maestoso (6:32)
12. Andante molto sostenuto (4:37)
13. Scherzo; Trio (3:34)
14. Allegretto espressivo (4:57)

Download Link: Enjoy the Music!

 

Other recordings by Jean-Pierre Rampal:

• Japanese Melodies for Flute and Harp
• The Great Flute Concertos
• Bolling: Suite for Flute & Jazz Piano Trio
• Best of 
• Bach: Flute Sonatas
• W. Amadeus Mozart
• Jean-Pierre Rampal Plays Scott Joplin
• The Essential Jean-Pierre Rampal
• Telemann: Twelve Fantasias For Flute Solo
• Rampal: Greatest Hits
• Flute & Harp

Other recordings by René Bartoli:

•  Récital de guitare - Bach, Haendel, Villa-Lobos, Tarrega, Albéniz / René Bartoli

 

Llaqtaymanta - Yawar Inka

Can't say much about this recording except that it appears to be in the public domain and there is no date associated with it. As the album cover suggests, this is traditional music from the Andes. Nice stuff.

Download Link: Enjoy the Music!

Other Andean Music:

• Llaqtaymanta, Ecuador Inkas, Traditional Musik der Inkas
• Llaqtaymanta
• The Very Best of Andean Flutes
• The Andean Flutes
• Music of the Andes
• Andean Legacy
• Traditional Andean Music - Volume 1 (CD)
• Flute Guitar & Harp Of The Andes
• Markahuasi - Traditional and Contemporary Music of the Andes
• The Deep and Mysterious Andean Music
• Land of the Incas