Flute

In January we celebrate the centenary of the greatest flautist in history, Jean-Pierre Rampal. The 1960s and 1970s mark the high point of Rampal’s collaboration with Erato with an outstanding series of landmark recordings, each of which being more beautiful than the other. In particular, two memorable baroque monographies are published.
One contains a large part of Handel’s flute sonatas (from the Op. 1 to the spurious Halle Sonatas) recorded with long-time keyboard accompanist Robert Veyron-Lacroix and was awarded a Grand Prix du disque. The other contains all the Vivaldi concertos with flute, including uncomplete ones then recorded for the first time ever! It also marks the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership with conductor Claudio Scimone.

Maxence Larrieu was born in Marseille on October 27th 1934. He’s one of the best representative men of the French flute school. He was taught by Joseph Rampal and belongs to the Rampal’s flute school, with Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alain Marion. He obtains the first flute prize with Gaston Crunelle (1951), and also the chamber music first prize of the National Superior Music College of Paris (1953). He also won the first prize of the international competition of Geneva, and was graduate from the international competition of München (1956). From 1954 to 1966, he wase a solo flautist for the Comic Opera of Paris, and then for the Paris Opera’s orchestra until 1978. He left this post to follow the virtuoso lesson at the National Music College of Geneva, and also at the National Superior Music College of Lyon.

The Magic Flute is an upcoming German fantasy musical film directed by Florian Sigl, based on the 1791 opera of the same name by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Roland Emmerich as executive producer.

When four musicians of high caliber join forces, one can generally expect favorable results; but only the truly splendid manage to create a musical experience greater than the sum of its parts. Such is the nature of The Opus Project, founded in 2020 and already rated as one of Canada’s most eminent Early Music quartets.

Die Zauberflöte von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart mit dem Text des Theaterprinzipals und Schauspielers Emanuel Schikaneder war am 30. September 1791 im Theater auf der Wieden in Wien erstmals über die Bühne gegangen. Damit nahm eine unvergleichliche Erfolgsgeschichte ihren Anfang. Davon wird auch der Mainzer Hofmusiker Franz Heinrich Ehrenfried (1747-1828) mit seiner Bearbeitung der Zauberflöte für Flötenquartett profitiert haben. Ehrenfried, der offenbar eine besondere Vorliebe für Besetzungen mit dem Modeinstrument Flöte hatte, gelingt mit diesem Quartett ein kompositorisch und spieltechnisch anspruchsvolles Stück.

Wilbert Hazelzet's legendary poetry on the flute has been one of Glossa's trademarks for many years. With this double reissues of his j.S. Bach recordings, the label recovers Hazelzet at his best: on the one hand, he reimagines what Bach's output for teh solo flute could have been, by combining the Flute Partita with his own transcriptions of three Cello suites, and on the other, he teams up with his year-long artistic partner Jacques Ogg to give us yet more transcriptions of Bach's everlasting output. Here's a double recording for eternity.

One of the elite orchestras on the world stage, the Berliner Philharmoniker – also widely known as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – was founded in Imperial Germany in 1882. Hans von Bülow took over as conductor in 1887, raising the prestige of the organization, as did subsequent guest conductors, including Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. In the 20th century, they survived the loss of their venue and their conductor during World War II and went on to thrive under conductor Herbert von Karajan, who led the group from 1956 to 1989. During his tenure, the orchestra won Grammy Awards for both opera and orchestral recordings.

Now practically unknown, Jean Daniel Braun (fl. 1728–40) was in his own day a well-known composer, flautist and bassoonist who lived in Paris during the cultural heyday of the 18th century. Little is known about his life, except that he was – among other things – a member of the ducal orchestra in Épernon. The flautist Marion Treupel-Franck has trawled through various archives in the course of her research in order to unearth and record the composer’s most interesting works: world-premiere recordings include Braun’s Second Sonata in G major for flute, bassoon and cello, his Fifth Sonata in B minor op. 1 for flute, viol and theorbo, his Second Sonata in E minor for flute, viol and theorbo and his Fourth Sonata in G major op. 5 for flute, bassoon and lute.

A much-underrated composer, Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) was one of the leading composers of the late 18th century, a friend and colleague of both Haydn and Mozart, and a formidable cello virtuoso. Although less dramatic than either Haydn or Mozart, his music does have moments of explosive drama that appear all the more effective when bursting fortissimo from an otherwise calm movement. The harmonic shifts are also surprising and used to great effect. His music is sensuous, passionate and dramatic.Played on period instruments by flutist Rafael Ruibérriz de Torres, who studied with Wilbert Hazelzet and who played with Gustav Leonhardt, Philippe Herreweghe and Jos van Immerseel, and the Spanish Francisco de Goya String Quartet.

January 7th marks the centenary of Jean-Pierre Rampal, the celebrated flautist who was not only an amazing virtuoso but also and incredible trailblazer of his instrument’s repertoire. This digital collection demonstrates all the artistry of Rampal, at ease in all styles, from the numerous baroque concertos he revitalized to the contemporary pieces he recorded and premiered, and even the Indian music he recorded along with Ravi Shankar. Spanning twenty-five years of his unique career, highlighting chamber music as well as concertos, running from Telemann and Bach to Nielsen and Poulenc, it includes numerous digital premieres and foreshadows a month of January intensely devoted to Rampal’s memory.