Mozart & Flute in Paris
Emmanuel Pahud (flute)
Anneleen Lenaerts (harp), Paul Meyer (clarinet), Gilbert Audin (bassoon), Radovan Vlatković (horn)
Orchestre de chambre de Paris/François Leleux (oboe)
rec. 2020/21, SR1, Philharmonie de Paris
WARNER CLASSICS 9029673932 [66:12 + 57:21]
This double album spotlighting the art of renowned flautist Emmanuel Pahud comprises works featuring the flute as a solo instrument. The flute has had a special association with French music since the reign of Louis XIV and his court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. Pahud has here gathered together nine works, all Parisian in origin. They ‘represent different golden ages of the flute’ and span a period of around two hundred and forty years: the oldest, featuring on the second CD, are a pair of works written by Mozart during a stay in Paris in 1778; on the first CD are works by Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Cécile Chaminade, Poulenc and the most recent by Philippe Hersant, from 2014.
Pahud serves as principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic and is also a busy soloist and chamber musician. He here links up with fellow members of the so-called ‘wind supergroup’ Les Vents Français which includes oboist François Leleux who is also conducting the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, clarinetist Paul Meyer, bassoonist Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatković on horn. In addition, Anneleen Lenaerts partners Pahud in the concerto for flute and harp. Incidentally, in 2017 Les Vents Français successfully recorded the Sinfonia Concertante for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and orchestra, K.297b for Warner (review).
Composer Philippe Hersant was Roman-born and is Parisian by adoption. His Dreamtime for flute and orchestra was premiered in 2014 in Paris by Emmanuel Pahud with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris conducted by Thomas Zehetmair. Highly engaging and approachable, Dreamland is part of a ‘series of works inspired by Australian aboriginal myths. Successfully evoking the environments and natural sounds of the Australian outback, Dreamtime has a heady atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of Debussy.
Influential Parisian composer Saint-Saëns is represented here by three works. The earliest score on this first CD is the Tarantelle from 1857, a dual concertante piece for flute and clarinet with piano. The composer orchestrated the score in 1879 and that is the version played here. Saint-Saëns acknowledges his debt of gratitude to Rossini in this dance whose uplifting writing abounds in tomfoolery. Soloists Pahud and Meyer savour the sparkling personality of this score.
Saint-Saëns’ Romance was written in 1871 for flute and piano. Owing to the perilous warfare in the Paris streets, the premiere was given outside France. The dedicatee flautist Amédée de Vroye premiered the score with Saint-Saëns at piano in 1872 in Baden-Baden, Germany; this second version for flute and orchestra was introduced shortly after and is the one played here. Pahud clearly relishes his flute part especially the lovely extended melody which reminds me of an opera aria. Containing many melodic and harmonic features, this winsome and carefree Romance is highly popular with flautists, providing a stark contrast to the dangerous times in which it was written.
The rarely encountered Odelette for flute and orchestra is a very late work which Saint-Saëns completed in 1920, soon preparing a reduction for flute and piano. Living through the colonial era, Saint-Saëns was fascinated by what was then French North Africa and Islamic culture. He found his spiritual home in Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, which fired his imagination to produce works such as his Africa fantaisie for piano and orchestra, Piano Concerto No 5
'Egyptian' and the Suite algérienne. It seems that some of the Islamic themes which captivated and so inspired Saint-Saëns are woven into the writing of Odelette. In this compelling work, Pahud provides a direct, fresh outdoor feeling which is entirely successful.
Cécile Chaminade composed her striking Concertino for flute and piano in 1902. A couple of years later, she orchestrated the score remaining mindful
of ensuring that the flute part cuts easily through the plush orchestration. A commission by the Paris Conservatoire probably for the Concours des Prix, the Concertino was dedicated to the influential flautist and composer Paul Taffanel a professor of flute at the Conservatoire. Pahud unquestionably responds to this captivating Concertino, an inspiring work which certainly makes its presence felt for its boldness and generosity.
Almost certainly the best-known work on the first CD is Poulenc’s enduringly popular Flute Sonata from 1956-57. Written for soloist Jean-Pierre Rampal and with the composer on piano, it was premiered by Rampal to great acclaim in June 1957 at the Strasbourg Music Festival. Poulenc died in 1963 and the English composer Lennox Berkeley, who had been Poulenc’s friend and had also studied in Paris, was asked by flute soloist James Galway to orchestrate the sonata, which he completed in 1976. A dazzling combination of Poulenc’s original writing, Berkeley’s orchestration and Pahud’s playing makes this my highlight of the album.
While Fauré was writing his acclaimed Fantaisie for flute and piano, he was closely assisted by flutist Paul Taffanel, its commissioner and dedicatee. Taffanel intended the Fantaisie for the 1898 Concours de flute, a competition held for students at the Conservatoire de Paris. Fauré designed the score in two parts, divided by a short pause, one an Andantino and the other an Allegretto. Heard here is the orchestrated version of the Fantaisie which composer Louis Aubert prepared in 1957.
Both of the admirable scores on CD 2 were written in 1778 during Mozart’s seven month stay in Paris with his mother Anna Maria. While he was there, his mother fell ill and died, leaving the heartbroken twenty-two-year-old stranded, penniless and alone. It is hard to imagine how such remarkable works were composed during such a bleak chapter in Mozart’s life. Mozart wrote the Sinfonia Concertante for flute, oboe, horn and bassoon (sometimes known as Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds) especially for four soloists performing at the Paris Concert Spirituel. Mysteriously, although programmed for the concert, it was never performed and the autographed manuscript was lost. A version of the Sinfonia Concertante scored for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon surfaced in 1870 and was attributed to Mozart, then published. Although it has been widely played and recorded, that version of the Sinfonia Concertante is deemed to be of dubious authenticity. Played here by Pahud and his three solo wind partners is the version prepared by American musicologist Robert D. Levin, a Mozart specialist who in 1988 reconstructed Mozart’s potentially original Paris scoring for flute, oboe, horn and bassoon complete with new orchestral parts and also cadenzas. Levin’s version seems to have found favour and he also wrote a book (approaching 500 pages) on the subject titled ‘Who Wrote the Mozart Four-Wind Concertante?’ It’s hard to imagine a finer group of wind players than Pahud with François Leleux, Radovan Vlatković and Gilbert Audin who deliver a vibrantly absorbing account of the score.
Around the same time as Mozart wrote the Sinfonia Concertante, he composed the Concerto for flute and harp, an unusual combination at the time but now a popular work much loved by audiences. The Double Concerto was originally a commission from a French Duke who was a flautist, to play with his harpist daughter, but evidently Mozart was never paid his fee. At the Dresden Music Festival 2019, I reported from a concert in the newly refurbished Kulturpalast which included an exceptional performance of Mozart’s Concerto for flute and harp played by Emmanuel Pahud and harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet with the Dresdner Philharmonie under Cristian Măcelaru (review). For this performance of the Concerto for flute and harp Pahud and Anneleen Lenaerts make an accomplished partnership achieving captivating playing which serves the music so satisfyingly. No cadenzas by Mozart survive for the double concerto and for this recording Pahud and Lenaerts use those prepared by Nino Rota.
Almost certainly the greatest flute player of his generation, with this collection Emmanuel Pahud has achieved some of his finest work. With ideal levels of expression and virtuosity, Pahud produces a beautiful tone from his Haynes all-14K-gold, pinless flute. Deserving of praise, too, are Pahud’s wind partners for attaining first-rate ensemble, impeccably shaped phrasing, and such appealing tones from their instruments – and we must not forget harpist Lenaerts. The accompaniment of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris directed by François Leleux is top-notch.
Recorded on the studio stage at the Philharmonie de Paris, the players were socially distanced. The engineering team has achieved a sound quality that suits of pleasing clarity and the soloists are miked fairly forward but not excessively so. Adding to the quality of the album, Denis Verroust’s booklet essay A Tribute to Paris is both helpful and informative. This album would make a valuable addition to any collection.
Michael Cookson
Contents
CD 1
Philippe HERSANT (b. 1948)
1. Dreamtime, for flute & orchestra (2014) [18:41]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
2. Romance, for flute & orchestra, Op 37 (1871) [6:14]
3. Odelette, for flute & orchestra, Op 162 (1920) [8:08]
Cécile CHAMINADE (1857-1944)
4. Concertino, for flute & orchestra, Op 107 (1902) [2:26]
Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
5-7. Flute Sonata, FP 164 (1957) [12:51] (arranged for flute & orchestra by Lennox Berkeley in 1976)
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924)
8. Fantaisie, Op 79 (1898) [5:26] (arranged for flute & orchestra by Louis Aubert in 1957)
Camille SAINT-SAËNS
9. Tarantelle, for flute, clarinet & orchestra, Op 6 (1857, orch. 1879) [6:24]
CD 2
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
1-3. Sinfonia concertante for flute, oboe, horn, bassoon & orchestra
in E-flat major, K Anh. I/9, (297b) (1778) [27:43]
(Original 1778 Paris version - reconstruction & cadenzas by Robert D. Levin)
4-6. Concerto for flute & harp, K 299 (K 297c) (1778) [29:29]
(Cadenzas by Nino Rota)
Performers
Emmanuel Pahud, flute (all works)
Anneleen Lenaerts, harp (CD 2, 4-6)
Paul Meyer, clarinet (CD 1, 9)
Gilbert Audin, bassoon (CD 2, 1-3)
Radovan Vlatković, horn (CD 2, 1-3)
Orchestre de chambre de Paris/François Leleux (direction, also oboe CD 2, 1-3)
