Andantino (1883) & Andante (1884) for Flute and Piano
- Staff Pick
Staff Pick
“Wonderful Taffanel!”
These two lovely vignettes by Taffanel are beautiful. The Andantino meanders charmingly across the flute using mainly the middle octave whilst the Andante is more complex and dramatic. Short and very sweet, both these pieces are absolutely wonderful!
From the Publisher
From the early 1860s, when he graduated from the Paris Conservatoire, Paul Taffanel pioneered a new style of flute playing. Its primary characteristics were flexibility of tone and sensitivity of musicianship. Mere technical virtuosity was put firmly in its place - no longer to be pursued as an end in itself. Consequently the flute began to be taken seriously again as an instrument of emotional depth. In France it became indispensible to the music of composers like Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy and Ravel. Taffanel himself demonstrated its virtues in a series of compositions for the flute, including a set of sight reading tests for the Paris Conservatoire - he was a member of the examination jury from 1875 and became flute professor in 1893.
Of the six surviving sight reading pieces by Taffanel, four are already available in companion editions (PEM50 & HE13). The remaining two - Andantino (1883) and Andante (1884) - are published here for the first time. Maybe due to pressure of time, Taffanel provided only a single-line accompaniment for the Andante (marked to be played on a cello for the examination). This has been modified and expanded into a full piano part for the present edition.
In the mid-1880s Taffanel was at the height of his career as an orchestral flute player at the Paris Opera and the Society des concerts du Conservatoire, and was famous throughout Europe as a soloist. Everywhere he went he charmed audiences with the lumious beauty of his flute tone and the lilting expressiveness of his phrasing. ‘How delightful his sound, how noble his sense of style’, wrote one critic. Those are the qualities to nurture and enjoy in performing these diverting miniatures.
Item Details
Instrumentation
- Part 1: Flute
- Part 2: Piano
Publisher: Pan Educational Music
Publisher's reference: PEM52
Part of the French Flute Encores series
Our Stock Code: 1146752
Media Type: Paperback (4 pages [score])
