Inventing Impressionism
The 1874 exhibition and its influence on flute repertoire
Easter is over and I’ve been enjoying a couple of days off after a busy few weeks of concerts and courses. March was all about Bach, as it always is at Passiontide, but now my mind is turning to new projects for the coming months.
Next week I’m in Paris, partly for work (more on that another day) and partly because I’m going to the new exhibition at Musée d’Orsay, “Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism”. The exhibition captures the moment 150 years ago this month, when Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne and others showed their work together for the first time, effectively creating the Impressionist movement (the name came about because a critic slammed Monet’s painting titled Impression, Sunrise). The Musée d’Orsay has gathered together all the paintings from the original exhibition, many of them on loan from other major collections. I’m really looking forward to a few days of Paris in the springtime (who wouldn’t be?), and the opportunity to immerse myself in this art. It had such an impact on the music which is so important to us as flute players.
It’s also where I took the inspiration for my book, Mélodie, which draws on French Impressionist repertoire beyond the flute to create new arrangements for two flutes and piano. Mélodie contains pieces by Fauré, Chausson, Hahn and Hüe, and is full of expressive possibilities and delicate washes of tone colour. One of my favourites is Fauré’s Notre amour, which I recorded (playing both parts) for this video. The photos are of Monet’s garden at Giverny which was the inspiration for many of his paintings—including, of course, the artwork on the cover of the book.
“It is such a treat to find a book for two flutes and piano which has a winning combination of both familiar and less well-known composers. Faure's lovely blockbuster Apres un Reve has the flutes weaving the tune around between them whilst the more enigmatic Soir Paien by Georges Hue allows the atmospheric melodic line to float above a rippling piano accompaniment…La Nuit by Chausson is low and dark, contrasting with the lightness of Faure's Notre Amour. This is a book which will continually give pleasure over the years and is a gateway to the interpretation of the French style.” (Review by Chris Hankin)
Next week’s newsletter returns to Jean-Pierre Rampal, this time looking at his work premiering some of our most important 20th century repertoire. Once again accompanied by interviews with the master, this programme contains over an hour of Rampal performances of newly commissioned music. Not to be missed!
And the painting that started it all…
So interesting as always.