A frequently ignored instrument, the Flauto d’Amore first appeared during the Baroque era, when chamber ensembles frequently included woodwind instruments. Built in B-flat, A, and A-flat, the flute is pitched between the standard concert flute in c and the alto flute, and is sometimes called the tenor flute. Several composers favored the flauto d’amore for its warm and full-bodied tone, including Quantz, a masterful flute composer whose literature is still standard in the repertoire. Ginevra Petrucci is widely recognized for her innovative programs. The flute she performs on for this recording is a solid silver flauto d’amore made by albert Cooper in 1990.

Eugene Bozza was a 20th-century successor to Giulio Briccialdi, the Italian flautist who is celebrated in 2018, the 200th anniversary of his birth. Born to an Italian father in Nice in 1905, Bozza studied violin and piano in Rome as a child before winning a place at the Paris Conservatoire, where he excelled on the violin. It was in France that he made his career, initially as an orchestra leader, conductor and composer. In 1931 he won the prestigious Prix de Rome and he was later decorated by the Republic as a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur for his services to French music. Having become director of the conservatoire in Valenciennes at the age of 45, he wrote prolifically for chamber ensembles, producing the kind of music which students could study and play together. However, his style was not an academic one, nor was it especially influenced by the artistic upheavals of the century in which he lived.

Image is the earliest work here, dating from 1939 and sharing with later studies a full understanding of the instrument’s technical possibilities. There are many allusions in the 14 etudes-Arabesques (1960) to famous flute solos of the past as composed by the likes of Mendelssohn, Debussy and Ravel, as well as demanding tests of flutter-tonguing and other flute techniques. The 10 Studies in Karnatic Modes (1972) are much more experimental and modernist, including sparing use of quarter-tones, and employing Indian modes such as may be discovered in some of Debussy’s music. The technical challenges include wide leaps, frequent dynamic changes and extremely high flute-writing.

This 2008 recording has been reissued to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Giulio Briccialdi. As a principal flautist in the major opera orchestras of Italy and across Europe, Briccialdi attracted renown not only for his performing virtuosity but also his ability to exploit and stimulate the rapid technical evolution of his instrument. Although he wrote an opera and a symphony, his legacy as a composer rests upon his works for his own instrument. These include many chamber works for flute and piano: fantasias and operatic fantasias capitalizing on the popular success of dramatic works, especially by Verdi. There are several attractive wind quintets and the Carnevale di Venezia Op.78, a concertante work for flute and orchestra, which has been recorded several times. These four concertos represent some of Briccialdi’s most valuable and original works: conceived as a pinnacle of virtuosic display for the soloist’s skill, and based entirely on original material, Briccialdi mostly kept those works for his personal use. In fact the great majority of Briccialdi’s work remains unpublished and the scores of these concertos were only published earlier this year by the Italian firm of Ricordi. They are all cast in the standard three-movement concerto format, by and large as brief as they are attractive, and unfailingly well written for the soloist: one highlight is the two-minute ‘Valse lento’ which forms the middle movement of the Fourth.

Among the most extensive works here is the cycle of Cantos Desiertos (1996) composed for flute and guitar by Terry Riley. The cycle was later incorporated within The Book of Abbeyzoud, an album with a character suspended between the Biblical, the mystical and the exotic. Francesco en Paraiso is a tender memorial to the countertenor Frank Royon Le Mée (1952-1993). The cycle continues with an Indian melody, and a melancholy lament before ending with a sultry Tango Ladeado (Tango Off-Centre). Hardly less substantial is Muse of Fire (1990) by George Rochberg, written in the shadow of the Gulf War: hence the sudden stops and starts, the military evocations, the funeral marches, the moments of dream-like lyricism and the rhapsodic soliloquies. Ora pro nobis (1991) is based on the slow movement of Bach’s Italian Concerto: a plea for release at a deeply troubled time. Bateau is a song from the 2003 album Ceramic Dog by Marco Ribot, who works mostly with jazz and post-rock musicians: this is the work’s first performance on classical guitar, and Alberto Mesirca brings out the delicate textures that evoke light shimmering on water. Of similar aquatic origins, Fish Tale is a ‘watercolor for flute and guitar’ by Osvaldo Golijov: ‘I wanted everything to be beautiful,’ said the composer, ‘even at the expense of some sense.’ This unique compilation concludes with shorter solo pieces alternating between flute and guitar, taking in the satisfyingly intricate textures of Crawford Seeger and Wuorinen at each end of American modernism, as well as a touching elegy by Mark Delpriora in memory of a student of his, Basil Keiser. This is the third solo album on Brilliant Classics by the guitarist Alberto Mesirca after his collections of music by Regondi and Sanz.

Johan Helmich Roman is called the “Father of Swedish music” and also the “Swedish Handel”. And with good reason, as his instrumental works match Handel’s chamber music in charm, virtuosity formal structure and tunefulness. There is no better advocate for these somewhat neglected works than Jed Wentz and his musical companions of Musica ad Rhenum. They are thoroughly aware of the stylistic details of the music and its performance.Included are liner notes by Jed Wentz.

The Doppler brothers played a dominant role in the K & K Monarchy’s musical life as composers, conductors, musicians, and as orchestral soloists. They were on good terms with acknowledged artists of the era, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, of Jozsef Bajza. Capriccio starts with this first album in the release of ten total of the complete flute music composed by Franz and Carl Doppler, including many world premiere recordings and interesting autobiographical notes. Flutist Claudi Arimany has done all of the research for this project over the past two decades, and has invited some of the best musicians in the world to participate in this project, including Janos Balint and Shigenori Kudo, who are the flutists chosen for this album.

Graceful, refined, and irresistibly charming, the Flute Quartets occupy an exquisite place in Mozart’s incomparable chamber music. This light, airy music with its vivid contrasts, delicious textures and irrepressible wit is brought to life by the soloists of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in this new release from PENTATONE. Mozart may have disparaged the flute as an instrument but he shows no signs of weariness in these exemplary works which positively overflow with youthful optimism. The young unemployed Mozart wrote three of the flute quartets following a commission from the Dutch amateur flautist Ferdinand Dejean in Mannheim. Around the same time he also started work on his famous Concerto for Flute and Harp. The Flute Quartet in D K285 is a breezy affair written in concertante style which brims with attractive melodies. Its sublimely affecting slow movement was described by the biographer Alfred Einstein as “perhaps the most beautiful accompanied flute solo that has even been written”. The simple, unhurried Flute Quartet in G K285A contains a delightful interplay of instruments, while the Flute Quartet in C K285B has a charming theme and variations with a spirited finale. The playful Flute Quartet in A K298 is a later work perhaps written for a group of friends; it contains borrowings from other composers artfully woven into the engaging and witty score. The result is, of course, utterly winning. Ulf-Dieter Schaaff is the principal flautist with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, a position he combines with a career as a soloist and as an internationally sought-after teacher. He is joined by his colleagues Philipp Beckert (violin), Andreas Willwohl (viola) and Georg Boge (violoncello). In their first recording for PENTATONE, they chose an unconventional seating arrangement (with violin and flute on the outer flanks) in order to create a novel spatial effect in the music. They play these quartets not as a “Concerto for Flute and String Trio” but as chamber music written for equal partners.