Hi all,

being a newbie to the flute and to music in general, can anyone suggest some famous flute pieces that I should listen to? Syrinx is first on my list!

Ta.

The Poulenc Sonata

And Faure's Sicilienne!!

Syrinx is THE famous flute piece good start! hehe!

What kind of music (what era etc) is your favourite?

Am trying to think of "most famous" type pieces but my brain is flagging, so will instead suggest some of my favourites that I think are well known enough to be easy to get hold of!!:

Bach - Partita in A minor
Bach - flute sonatas
Hadyn - flute sonatas
Telemann - fantasias

Mozart - flute concerti and the flute and harp concerto, also Andante in C

edit: oh and his flute quartets!

Debussy - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune - not strictly speaking a flute piece, but very famous flute solo
Bizet - Entr'acte from Carmen - same deal as above!
Franck - flute sonata
Prokofiev - flute sonata ()

Am surely missing some obvious ones here but some more to add to your list anyway

As I'm on an Ian Clarke role I'd recomend his CD!

Others:

Faure: Fantasie
Hummel: Sonatas
Anything by Gaubert
There's lots of others but brain is a bit dead at the moment! Enjoy!

And a lot of the above are available very cheaply if you take out a Naxos subscription, including the complete flute works of Gaubert.

I'd recommend the William Bennett performance of the Bach flute sonatas: another bargain buy.

John Rutter's Distant Land album contains his entire flute suite that it very listenable to.

I've found that for background music while courseworking and similar, just listening to the full performances CD out of one of the old ABRSM G7 list compilations, makes for nice background music, and of course covers a variety of styles. Some of the performances are rather dry though.

I remember when my Dad had gone out, and came back and bought me the William Bennett performance of the flute sonatas and some Mozart flute stuff for about £5! Not sure how he managed that but the Bennett performance of them is very nice.

The Bennett performances of the Bach sonatas are better than the Galway interpretations by far. As for the Bennett editions of the scores, whilst a bargain, the markings aren't great - very classical!

All the ones everyone else has mentioned
+
Chaminade concerto
Carnival of venice


=]

Thanks guys, that'll keep me going for a bit -

Sarah-flute - as for what music I'm interested in, I don't really know yet, hence the need for suggestions. Will find out soon I guess......

Hi

If you have a decent set of speakers attached to your computer have a search on Youtube, start with beatboxing flute.

..and Rampal's performances are way better than Bennett's IMO

Mouquet's Flute de Pan is my addition to the above list.

To
Die
For.

I agree with everything said so far However, I think "In Ireland" (though not particularly famous) by Hamilton Hardy is something every flute player should hear. . .

Did anyone mention Telemann Suite in A Minor? That's also a classic.

To play with a friendly (and fairly competent) pianist:

Roussel: Andante and allegro (two linked movements);
and - - - "Joueurs de flûte" (four short pieces).

To listen to (unless you have a tame harpist among your friends):

Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola and harp;
Ravel: Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet.

James galway is playing carmen you can listen and watch video on galway network.

A friend of mine who just got a full scholarship for RNCM told me to listen to Sharon Bezaly playing Carnival of Venice, after telling him I loved the Galway version. I would happily delete the Galway version off my computer knowing that I know have her recording. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING playing. Ive been sampling other stuff by her on itunes and its blowing me away. I really have to recommend you get some recording by her.

Just to quote off her website:

“Imagine you had the chance to talk to a youthful Vladimir Horowitz or David Oistrakh before the entire world woke up to them, and found yourself gabbling to your friends about this extraordinary young talent you’d had the privilege of talking to – only to have blank looks or a muted 'that’s interesting'. That’s how it feels talking about the astonishing young Israeli flautist Sharon Bezaly. You want to grab your friends by the shoulders and say 'No, listen to me: when I say astonishing I mean creating-history-as-we-speak good. It’s spelt B-e-z-a-l-y. Remember this name[i]”[/i]