Edition-HH

As a confirmed Mozartian it is natural that Müller's concertos for Flute and Orchestra should follow the classical pattern and the E minor work published here for the first time since 1801 is an attractive and virtuoso piece in the less usual minor tonality. It is edited by Nikolai Jaeger and Christopher Hogwood with a useful introduction including points of performance practice drawn from Müller’s Flute tutor. A Keyboard reduction of the Orchestral part is also available.

In Sonata 7 in D major Balicourt opens with a suave intricately rhythmic Adagio. The following Presto with its delightful interplay between flute and bass including both octave doubling and stretto imitation is the most skittish movement to emerge from the composer’s pen. The finale is a ‘sandwich’ movement in which a Minuetto encloses a duple-metre Cantabile in D minor. Although the minuet could be said to exemplify one of those ‘easy’ movements referred to in Balicourt’s prospectus for subscribers its complex prescribed ornamentation requires sensitive handling. Sonata 8 in E minor is strategically placed as the final work inthe set being one of the longest as well as the most conservative; adopting the traditional four-movement configuration it continually harks back to the grand Handelian style. An eloquent Andante ushers in a Presto containing many slightly academic contrapuntal touches and much chromaticism. The subsequent Largo is only five bars long: its plain melodic line in minims and crotchets is the skeleton around which the flautist is expected to weave an elaborate embroidery. For the finale Balicourt introduces in effect a new version in triple metre of the second movement. The fact that all four movements are in E minor heightens the sense of unity which is expressed very concretely through their sharing of some thematic material.

Scheibe’s three sonatas for flute (or violin) and obbligato harpsichord were published by Haffner in the late 1750’s but were probably composed much earlier; they contain a significant quantity of elaborate imitative writing that is out of character with Scheibe’s later music. Although rooted in the same tradition as the sonatas for flute and obbligato harpsichord by J.S. Bach C.P.E Bach and composers at Berlin court of Frederick the Great these are more substantial works each having four movements in the traditional slow-fast-slow-fast scheme. For the most part they are trio sonatas the right hand of the harpsichord acting as the secondtreble voice but several movements feature idiomatic writing for the keyboard. Also interesting is the large amount of ornamentation called for particularly in the harpsichord part. While Scheibe disapproved of the excessive embellishments that Bach actually wrote into his melody lines these sonatas are nonetheless heavily ornamented albeit through the insertion of notational symbols; in addition to turns and mordents Scheibe uses no less than three different trill symbols!

Den lille danserinnen (‘The Little Ballerina’) evokes a charming gracious light-footed dancer while Nocturne makes the piano sing in the romantic tradition. Both these delightful small pieces are ideal encores!

Cramer felt himself a Mozartian by temperament and intellectually a devotee of J S Bach. Beethoven considered he was the best of all living pianists and recommended him as a teacher.