The magic of the Venezuelan plains

Happy New Year everyone! Here is a new piece for solo flute that caught my ear over the holidays, "Luna con Joropo and viceversa" performed by the Venezuelan Flutist Alexis Angulo. (video)

The composer of this work, flutist Raimundo Pineda writes:

"The performer is Alexis Angulo, a distinguished Venezuelan flutist, whose musical roots lie in the esteemed Venezuelan Orchestral System. He served for many years as the principal flutist of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. He is currently the Principal Flutist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I have had the privilege of being his teacher during his early years of study, and I am honored to count him as a personal friend. It is with great pleasure that I invite you to experience this remarkable interpretation of my work, brought to life by this exceptional artist.

The enchanting spirit of the Venezuelan plains has always been an integral part of my music. The joropo, our national dance, has presented itself as a rich terrain of rhythmic and melodic challenges, which I have explored to the point of satiety. Composed in 2017, this piece once again evokes that magic, intertwining it with the bittersweet nostalgia of my father's memory. It is entirely original and authentic in its conception. With a high level of difficulty for the performer, Luna con joropo y vice versa promises daring and virtuosic acrobatics, while retaining the sweetness and nostalgia of the tonada.

Thanks for listening,

  Raimundo Pineda  (composer, flutist, conductor)"

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Jen adds:

I went exploring at Raimundo's website to look at the sheetmusic and found a second excellent work for solo piccolo that is of high interest. Here is the composer himself performing it.

Epifania Llanera for solo piccolo  (video)

I just love hearing all the great new music coming out!

Keep me up to date and let me know of any new works that you have come across (use the comment button if you like).

All best for the coming year,

Jen

     

For Unto Us a Child is Born for Two Flutes & Organ

Dear Flutelovers,

Jon Raybould has just arranged this glorious section of Handel's Messiah for two flutes and organ or backing track. How beautiful! I can't wait to hear recordings of it with live flutists to hear the projection! Jon's message about his work is below, best, Jen

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 Hello Flutists, 

I have just arranged "For Unto Us A Child Is Born" from Handel's "The Messiah" - for 2 flutes and organ duet (3 hands). Video:

Purchase the sheet music  ($6) for this piece: Sheetmusic Direct or Sheetmusicplus.

No organ or perhaps no organist? No problem - backing track here: Google Drive Backing Track.

Notes: This is a version for 2 flutes - and organ for 3 hands (ie 2 organists). It's been arranged like this to increase accessibility for performances in church. Basically, organ reductions of the orchestral score are invariably very hard to play - especially the fast semiquaver (16th note) runs in thirds. So I've split the top line to be played by a second organist (primo) sat to the right of the main organist (secondo). The right-hand player plays music just on the treble clef with one hand; therefore this person might be a student or essentially a non-organist.

This is one of my most favourite, uplifting Christmas songs ever!! How incredible that Handel completed this 260-page oratorio in just 24 days during the summer of 1741. Happy holidays! Best wishes to all, Jon Raybould  

Charming!!

Dear Flutelovers,

Sometimes you just need to be charmed!!

I've just discovered this lovely arrangement of a Shostakovich Waltz (from the Ballet Suite No. 1) by flutist Paolo Taballione (video):

It's so great to hear someone do an encore arrangement of this for flute and piano!

 For those not familiar with the work it is The Waltz, "The Music Box" from Shostakovich's Ballet Suite No.1.  (page 19 of this score online).

Here's the original orchestration which is marvellous and unforgettable! (video)

And while we're on the topic of charming piccolo inclusive pieces that we dream of playing, what about the first two miniature movements of this charming piece of music below?

It's called Tveitt's 100 Hardanger Tunes op. 151. Ready to get dreamy with a piccolo?  Take a listen to the piccolo and other woods in the first five minutes; first otherworldly floating for three minutes, and then actual goblins (at 3:40). Fantastic! (video): 

 Do feel free to comment below if you can direct us to more great arrangements of good flutey works. It's so great to hear new arrangements of these done with such colour. Can't wait to hear someone arrange the Tveitt (read more about this composer here)!

Best, and enjoy the eclectic listening!

Jen

Hiccup with paypal

 Dear Flutelovers,

Update: Problem resolved Oct. 24th, 2024 yay!! :>)

If anyone was trying to order Christmas Carols, Wedding Duets, Roger Mather's "Art of Playing the Flute" or Celtic Flute Trios, for a few days the payment company Paypal were holding my Donation button hostage while waiting for me to realize they were doing so. I finally spoke to them in order to get the problem cleared up.

If ever you want to order sheetmusic or books, at anytime, just send a paypal for the amount in Canadian dollars to:

 jen(at)jennifercluff(dot)com 

and that always works. 

(Thanks Efrain for alerting me to this.)

:>)

All fixed now.

Jen

Still startlingly vunderbarr!

 Dear Flutelovers,

Way back in 1981 my then flute teacher told me that the best possible thing I could do at this point in time, was to go to the University of Toronto, not because getting a degree was that important, but to study privately, affordably, and in town with Jeanne Baxtresser. Best possible advice and to this day I love love LOVE her decisive, informed and incredibly musical playing.

(Unfortunately I didn't get to attend more than a masterclass before she whisked off to the Montreal Symphony and was no longer at U. of T.).

Nevertheless I learn tons and tons from listening to her playing every time I hear it, even today, even now, every time.

The other day I was sweating away, renovating the house, painting the walls with the classical radio on, and I heard the most exquisite music and didn't know what it was. Some most delightful chamber playing. Remarkable!  In the distance, at first the flutist sounded for about four bars almost like a piccolo, it was so simple and lovely, and such a supportive bassoonist, so subtle! I rushed to the radio to hear the announcer say: "That was Jeanne Baxtresser and partner, bassoonist David Carrol playing Kuhlau opus 119."

But of course!!!

Here is the Kuhlau Rondo below so you can hear (hope I can find mvmts. I and II also, but not yet) and also a lovely Madeline Dring movement from her Trio. Enjoy!!

Jeanne Baxtesser and husband David Carrol play Kuhlau Trio op. 119 Rondo (III) (video) 

Jeanne Baxtresser plays "Simplice", the 2nd mvmt. of Dring's Trio for flute, oboe and piano (video)

Best, Jen 

who's renovating and working on other projects, that's why you haven't heard from me....do comment though if you hear what I'm talking about! Rock on Jeanne Baxtresser!

Firebird rehearsal with Dudamel

 Dear Flutelovers,

What a thrill ride on a Sunday afternoon. This is my absolutely favourite piece of music being played by the LA Phil an their entirely exciting/thrilled conductor. Wowza. Enjoy!

Dudamel rehearsing The Firebird with LA Phil (video)

Best, Jen

Playalong Midsummer Duet

 Dear Flutelovers,

 Over on the FLUTElist Jon Raybould has announced an opportunity to play a duet of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream with a famous historical flutist from France! I say go for it! So fun. Here's what Jon says about his playalong creation:

 Jon wrote: "I've made a YouTube video of the "Scherzo" from Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", arranged for flute duet. It's from "Méthode de flûte" by Joseph-Henri Altès, and essentially, it's the same as the duet featured at the end of "Album of Flute Duets" (Louis Moyse).

However, on this video you hear a recording of just the FLUTE 2 part, played by the late Fernand Caratgé (1902–1991), a prominent French flutist of the 20th century.

The idea is that you follow the score appearing on the YouTube screen and play along with the Flute 1 part!! All for free!

This is a collaboration between myself and Chris Steward, collector of, and expert on,classic flute recordings. 

I've been working on it for a few months. Here's what happened:

1. Chris posted on the Flute List about the "Méthode de flûte" by Joseph-Henri Altès. He was editing some pages of Part 3, and gave the link to it on IMSLP.

2. I noticed that in this Method, there was the Midsummer Night's Dream Scherzo flute duet that appeared to be the same as the one in the Louis Moyse Duet book. In my teaching days, I played it zillions of times with my advanced students.

3. Chris then emailed me, out of interest, an old recording that Fernand Caratgé had made, to illustrate the Altès Methode. (Caratgé had spent time revising and editing the Altès Methode for publication...)...

4. So an idea came to me - to use my video editing skills and produce this play-along video for advanced players to play along to. I've made it, so the lines of the music appear magically on the screen (no need for page turns!) .. Plus, I've added yellow blocks on the screen which flash in time with the beat, to help players keep in time. (Best viewed on a large screen via a desktop computer).

I've added some background information at the end of the video, including information about Chris Steward's "Early Flute Recordings" pages on the Robert Bigio site.

If you have the duet in printed form, of course you can use that if you can't play along to the YouTube screen.

And here's a tip - for practising, you can slow down the YouTube playback easily. Below the video, click on the "cog" icon. From there you can choose a speed from x 0.25, through to normal speed.. YouTube does a pretty good job of reducing the playback speed whilst maintaining the correct pitch.

Here's the whole video: (video)

 Direct link to the start of the play-along section.

Here's the direct link to the "background info." section toward the end of the video. 

I included an excerpt of a performance of the orchestral version of the Scherzo, played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the end. It is stunning. For the complete performance, here's the video link (Bravo to the flute section).

Best wishes, Jon Raybould"