Hawaii Public Radio Flute Playlist
On January 10, 2020, I had the pleasure of joining Louise King Lanzilotti in the Hawaii Public Radio studios to play an hour’s worth of flute music and chat about the 4th Annual Hawaii Flute Festival. Here is my playlist along with some select notes. The hour started with a live performance of Debussy’s Syrinx that I previewed on my YouTube Channel.
HPR Playlist
Debussy: Syrinx, la flûte de Pan
LIVE PERFORMANCE - Lance Suzuki, flute
Written in 1913 as incidental music to the drama Psyché by Gabriel Mourey
While Psyché has faded into obscurity, Syrinx has become a staple of every flutist’s repertoire
This piece references the story of Pan and Syrinx. Pan is a mischievous faun, and Syrinx a beautiful nymph. Pan chases after Syrinx and, to hide herself, she transforms into hollow water reeds. A frustrated Pan sits down by the water’s edge and hears the wind blowing over the hollow reeds that once were Syrinx. He cuts the reeds, and fashions them into the first pan pipe flute.
Syrinx the piece is not meant to be a literal telling of the story. Instead, it is an evocation of Pan’s emotions...his solitude, the anguish of unrequited love and, finally, acceptance.
J.S. Bach: Polonaise & Badinerie from Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor
James Galway, flute
Galway is probably the most famous living flutist and an HPR listener favorite
Polonaise is a Polish national dance that became popular in the European courts during the 17th Century
Badinerie is a light diversion or pleasantry
Telemann: Fantasia No. 2 in A Minor, for solo flute
Jasmine Choi, flute
The 4th Annual Hawaii Flute Festival features a residency with an artist described as “goddess of the flute” and “one of the “10 best flutists in the history of music.”
Here is a recording of Jasmine Choi playing Telemann’s Fantasia No. 2 in A Minor from her album “The Telemann Files.”
Mozart: Theme and Variations from Flute Quartet in C Major
Jean Pierre Rampal, flute
Rampal’s recording of the Mozart flute quartets is one that I listened to over and over again as a young musician.
This iconic recording also features the legendary Isaac Stern on violin, Salvatore Accardo on Viola and Rostropovich on cello.
The Theme and Variations are the second movement of two in the C Major Flute Quartet.
If you are a connoisseur of Mozart and wind chamber music, you may recognize this as the same Theme and Variations from Mozart’s Gran Partita.
Godard: Suite de trois morceaux - Idylle
Paula Robison, flute; Samuel Sanders, piano
Rounding out today’s survey of flute music is a flutist who means a lot to me personally. Since I first met Paula Robison in 2002, I have had many opportunities to study her playing up close...in concerts, masterclasses and while playing next to her.
Paula has often led a series of interpretation classes in the style of the French flutist, Marcel Moyse. My greatest takeaway from these classes is that music is so much more than playing the right notes at the right time. Of course we still need to play the right notes at the right times. However, the notes and the instrument itself are only tools to help you achieve the end goal...and that is communicating with your audience and sharing a part of yourself with the listener. This is something that Paula accomplishes so effortlessly and effectively in this beautiful recording.
Boehm: Grand Polonaise in D Major
Jasmine Choi, flute; Hugh Sung, piano
From Bach’s time through the mid 19th century, many minor improvements were made to the design of the flute. However, in 1847, the German inventor and flute virtuoso, Theobald Boehm, patented his new design which would revolutionize the flute and flute playing.
Boehm’s background was as a goldsmith and he put his expertise in metalwork to good use, designing an intricate set of keys that allows the player to open or close one, two or even three keys at once with the use of a single finger.
This design allowed for greater facility and agility. It also evened out the sonority and pitch of the flute across the whole chromatic range of the instrument, similar to the equal temperament of keyboard instruments. Boehm’s flute design of 1847 is still in use today, largely unaltered.
There is perhaps no better example of the agility and range of the Boehm flute than in his own music because Boehm was also a prolific composer.
This performance of Boehm’s Grand Polonaise is by Jasmine Choi, our artist in residence for the 4th Annual Hawaii Flute Festival.
As you listen, I invite you to remember the sound of Bach’s Polonaise and of the Baroque flute in comparison to this truly grand Polonaise composed by the inventor of the modern flute and performed by one of the most gifted flutists of today.