Gaubert: Music For Flute 3

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Cat No: 8557307

Release Date: 01 January 2006

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313230723

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: GAUBERT

Description
Philippe Gaubert (1879 - 1941)Complete Works for Flute, Volume 3Philippe Gaubert was among the most prominent Frenchmusicians of the period between the two world wars.After a distinguished career as flautist with the ParisOpera, he received in 1919, at the age of forty, threeappointments that catapulted him into the highestechelons of French musical life, with appointments asprofessor of flute at the Paris Conservatoire, principalconductor of the Paris Opera, and principal conductor ofthe Societe des Concerts. As a composer, Gaubert wasnot an innovator, but he assimilated many of theinnovations of Franck, Ravel and Debussy, leaving notonly music for the flute but also contributions to opera,ballet, orchestral music and songs.A wind player, when preparing to perform, willoften choose a comfortable note and repeat it a fewtimes until the embouchure begins to feel right, theinstrument is warmed by the player's breath, and soundand expression come into focus. So begins, beguilingly,Soir sur la plaine (Evening on the Plain), with a briefwarm-up centered on G sharp. For good measure, theflautist repeats the exercise down an octave, whereuponthe piano chimes in with a few chords, and havingdetermined that our G sharps are in tune, we launch intothe piece itself. As it turns out, the opening warm-up hassufficient musical merit to warrant returning severaltimes including, satisfyingly, as the movement'sconclusion. The following Orientale, the second of theDeux esquisses (Two Sketches) gives a glimpse, from asafe distance, of the mysterious and exotic East.The striking opening of Soir sur la plaine harksback to Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun, which happensto outline the same ambiguous interval, the tritone, in itsopening flute solo. Philippe Gaubert created almostsingle-handedly a repertoire of sonatas, chamber worksand shorter pieces that reflect the revolution in fluteplaying initiated by Debussy and by the flute-makerTheobald Boehm, which is described more fully inVolume II of this series (Naxos 8.557306).Nocturne and Allegro scherzando upholds the highstandard of Faure's Fantaisie, the Paris Conservatoire'sexamination piece for 1898. To put flautists succinctlythrough their paces, both pieces consist of a lyricalintroduction and a virtuosic conclusion. Gaubert'sFantaisie and Ballade share a similar lay-out, expandedto include brief cadenzas and greater expressive variety,and, in the case of the Ballade, a calm conclusion.It is regrettable that Gaubert never wrote a fluteconcerto. As the composer of many successful largescaleorchestral works, he would have been a primecandidate for the task. He did, however, compose thebrief Sicilienne for flute and orchestra, which wouldserve admirably as an encore after a flute concerto, butwhich has achieved wider currency in a transcription forflute and piano, presumably by Gaubert himself.The two Romances, composed just a few yearsapart, form a contrasting pair. The first is one ofGaubert's most effectively sustaine
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