CONCERTO FOR FLUTE AND STRING ORCHESTRA op.493A (October 1996)

Published by: Highbridge Music Ltd
Commissioned by: Gabrielle Byam-Grounds and English Serenata with assistance from West Midland Arts
Instrumentation: flute, vn1,vn2,va,vc,cb
[Key to Abbreviations]
Duration: 18 mins
First Performance: Audley End, 25.7.1995 Gabrielle Byam-Grounds (fl) Howard Snell(cond), English Sinfonia
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Movements

• 1: Allegro Cantando
  

  The first movement is quite simply a long-drawn-out melody which the flute 'sings' and then elaborates expressively.

• 2: Scherzo con Spirito
  

  A rapid, syncopated movement with a 'floating' middle section.

• 3: Andante espressivo
  

  A slow theme and a variation, culminating in a short cadenza, which leads to the fourth movement.

• 4: Marcia Giocosa
  

  A mischievous 'whistling' march. However, the bustle and gaiety of this lively movement is interrupted by a second cadenza from which re-emerges a shimmering version of the theme from the first movement that now accelerates with a crescendo into a short and energetic Coda.
  
  (H.B.)

Notes

Composer's note: I played the flute at school and always held a special affinity for the instrument, often composing prominent solos for it within the context of my orchestral music, but never completing a concerto.  The flautist Gay Byam-Grounds had been the soloist and leader of the English Serenata who had formed the ensemble which helped me develop the full-length stage show of 'The Snowman'  from 1993 onwards. In 1996 as an enthusiastic performer of my music she summoned up the courage to commission a concerto and I accepted. The first movement's main theme had been in my mind for some years.

Performances

2nd October 2010	Rachel Coghlan flute, Daniel Parkinson conductor. Chester Chamber Orchestra, Wesley Methodist Hall, Chester
18th December 2009	Anthony Robb (flute), Oxford Philomusica, Howard Blake (conductor), Sheldonian, Oxford

Reviews

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His Flute Quintet (also in its arrangement as Flute Concerto) declares a no-barriers statement of faith in that good-hearted marriage between joy, melody, pensive asides and solace. Avoiding blandness he spirits the listener away with enchantingly imagined and expressed moods and cheerful merry-eyed delight. Much the same applies to the light-suffused warmth and Gallic impressionism of the Trio for flute, cello and harp. This would go well in the same concert as the Ravel Introduction and Allegro and the Bax Elegiac Trio.

Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International, 7/6/2010

Related Works

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