With the development of a bourgeois music culture in Europe during the 18th century, the status of the dilettante changed as well. In courtly feudal...

With the development of a bourgeois music culture in Europe during the 18th century, the status of the dilettante changed as well. In courtly feudal society dilettante meant a musically educated member of the upper class. He was distinguished from the professional musician only by the fact that music was not his means of making a living. In the new society it becomes a term for the less musically competent, an amateur instrumentalist of vocalist, and quite distinct from the educated ‘connoisseur’ or professional musician. It is also evident that this type of person, who connects with music on a modest level, is the dominant part of the audiences that attend the emerging ‘concert’ entertainments. It is for this specific audience that an abundance of new compositions appeared, particularly in the area of chamber music. From the beginning of the century the flute was chief among the instruments preferred by enthusiasts, as well as the highly educated non-professional connoisseurs. The flute, in its late 17th century form, being a relatively ‘modern’ instrument – and a fashionable one - joined with the keyboards in a pivotal role. The previously dominant violin drifted more and more into the domain of professional musicians and virtuosos. And perhaps the sound of a flute, idiomatic of the human voice, was a more natural partner for the expression of bourgeois sensitivity than that of a violin. On this new release, flutists Hensgeorg Schmeiser and Jan Ostry, along with cellist Othmar Muller, present Haydn & Stamitz’s ‘London Trios.’