WPAS Experience the Best - Washington Performing Arts Society

Franz and Karl Doppler were two of the great flute players of the 19th century, and the brothers were so accomplished that they made concert tours as boys throughout Europe (neither should be confused with the Austrian scientist Christian Doppler, who described the “Doppler Effect,” in which pitch varies according to the relative motion of two bodies). They were based for many years in Pest, where in 1848 Franz became first flute in the Hungarian National Theatre; for that company he wrote five operas in Hungarian. Karl was both flutist and conductor in Pest and composed Singspiels and folk plays in Hungarian while there.

The two sometimes collaborated on compositions, and among their works for flute (or two flutes) are a number virtuoso showpieces based on popular tunes, folk melodies, or themes from operas. These pieces are quite difficult to date–probably they took shape over a long period and during the course of many performances. This concert offers their Fantasy on themes from Verdi’s Rigoletto. In Rigoletto, first produced in 1851, the title character–a hunchbacked dwarf who serves as court jester to the libidinous Duke of Mantua–plots to murder the duke, who has seduced his daughter Gilda. That plot will go horribly awry, but there are some terrific melodies along the way, and it is hard to resist an opera that offers such pleasures as “Questa e quella,” “Caro nome,” and “La donna è mobile.” The Doppler brothers, both of whom played in opera orchestras, clearly saw the charm of this music, and–beginning with the figure associated with Monterone’s curse on Rigoletto from the very beginning of the opera–they give us an elegant tour of its great themes, as well as a showpiece for duo-flutists.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Mozart visited Mannheim, in what is now central Germany, from October 1777 to March 1778, during a long tour with his mother in search of a position worthy of his talents. The trip would prove fruitless, but the five months in Mannheim were a pleasant interlude for the 22-year-old composer. Mannheim was an extremely sophisticated musical community with a first-class orchestra, talented composers, and number of distinguished musicians, both professional and amateur. Mozart also took this occasion to fall in love with a teenaged singer, much to the distress of his father back in Salzburg.

One of the amateur musicians Mozart met in Mannheim was a Dutch surgeon and flutist named Ferdinand Dejean, who commissioned three flute concertos and three flute quartets for his own use from the young composer. Mozart had trouble getting interested in this commission–he wrote only one concerto (and he arranged an earlier oboe concerto for flute) and at least one flute quartet. Dejean was disappointed, and the matter was eventually settled when Mozart agreed to receive only half the fee that he and Dejean had originally discussed.

Given Mozart’s professed disinterest, it is pleasing to be able to report that the music he wrote is anything but routine. The Flute Quartet in D Major, completed on Christmas Day 1777, is in the expected form: sonata-form first movement, slow movement, and rondo-finale. Brief and straightforward, it keeps the spotlight firmly on the flute, offering beautifully idiomatic writing for that instrument in the process. The flute has the melodic interest in the opening Allegro; textures remain fairly simple through the exposition, but the music becomes more complex in the development, which features a good deal of chromatic writing. The lovely Adagio is perfect flute music: over pizzicato accompaniment, the flute has long melodic lines, full of turns and grace notes. The concluding rondo moves energetically on its main theme, announced immediately by the flute. This cheerful flow of energy is broken along the way by brief contrasting episodes.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen was one of those works that set other composers’ hearts and minds on fire. Frosty old Brahms, hater of all things French, loved it with a passion, and the opera has drawn hosts of composers to make new works by arranging its thematic material for different instruments. The range of these works is impressive, from Rodion Shchedrin’s 1968 ballet score for an orchestra of strings and percussion to Busoni’s using themes from Carmenfor his Sonatina No. 6 in 1920. The opera’s piquant and dramatic themes have captivated violinists in particular, and the arrangements of themes from Carmenfor violin and piano are too numerous to count, including versions by Pablo de Sarasate, Jenö Hubay, Franz Waxman, and many others.

But there are arrangements of themes from Carmen for other instruments as well, and flutists can take pleasure in the Carmen Fantasy, prepared in 1900 by French composer François Borne (1840-1920). The CarmenFantasy offers a virtuoso treatment of such favorite themes as the “fate” motif, the Habanera, and the Danse bohème; a brilliant expansion of the Toreador Song brings matters to a resounding close. It is heard at this concert in an arrangement by James Galway.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Claire de lune, Debussy’s seductive invitation into a world of moonlit possibility, has become one of his most famous compositions, so it may come as a surprise to learn that in its earliest version this music had nothing at all to do with moonlight. Debussy originally composed it around 1890 under the title Promenade sentimentale, and the 28-year-old composer intended it as one of the movements of a suite of pieces for piano. Debussy sketched that suite in 1890, but he was in no hurry to finish it; not until 15 years later, in 1905, did he come back to these pieces, revise them, and publish the set under the title Suite bergamasque.

But there had been some important changes along the way. The movement originally titled Promenade sentimentale now had a new name, Claire de lune, which Debussy had taken from the title of a poem by Paul Verlaine. Verlaine (1844-1896) is remembered as one of the symbolist poets, that school of poetry centered in France at the end of the 19th century that reacted against realism and in favor of an exploration of the internal consciousness–a setting suffused with the half-tones of soft moonlight was perfect for that imagination.

Debussy’s Claire de lune fully deserves its popularity. No matter how over-familiar this music may have become, Debussy’s fluid rhythms, haunting melodies, and muted, silvery colors continue to work their hold on listeners (and performers). Claire de lune has been arranged for many different instrumental combinations, and arrangements for orchestra offer a palette of sound that can evoke the subtle textures of Debussy’s music more fully than a solo piano.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger