Pieces by major composers featuring the FLUTE prominently

[Ciel_Rouge]

And I do not mean passages in symphonies but works where it really shows off.  I really like the Syrinx by Debussy and would like to expand my horizons in that direction. I would also like to include weird and obscure 20th century pieces etc. Baroque pieces with flute are also welcome ;-)

[Opus106]

Johann Joachim Quantz. His name is synonymous with the (Baroque) flute.

The Musical Offering, Bach's penultimate work, features a prominent part for the flute which he especially wrote for Frederick II of Prussia (a.k.a. Frederick the Great), who was an amateur flautist.

Then there's that cell-phone ring-tone. (BWV 1067/Badinerie)

I've heard some lovely flute sonatas by Jean-Marie Leclair, but the man was primarily a violinist and more well know for his violin sonatas.   

[Dana]

      Mozart wrote some flute quartets (flute, violin, viola and cello), and Beethoven wrote a set of Serenades for flute, violin and viola which I've read which are quite pleasant

[listener]

for a start the 2 concertos by Mozart, and his Concerto for flute and harp, Concertone for flute, violin, oboe, 'cello, and the Rondo KA 184;  
and the concertos by Nielsen and Ibert
Prokofiev op.94 transcription of his violin sonata
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor   - "mad scene"
Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice - Dance of the Blessed Spirits
Sonatas by CPE Bach, Vivaldi,
more pieces and sonatas by Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Widor, Fauré (Fantasie op.79)
Roussel: Joueurs de flûte

.....as I said, a start.   There's lots more and this will activate memories.

An interesting recital by Stephen Preston presents 7 different instruments from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries on Amon RA CD SAR-19

[Grazioso]

Rautavaara's flute concerto Dances with the Winds, featuring bass, alto, standard, and piccolo flute.

[Brahmsian]

Beethoven's National Airs and Variations for Flute and Piano, Op. 105 and Op. 107

[Luke]

You really want to explore the outer reaches of 20th century weirdness? - the flute, unaccompanied or as soloist, and also in its upwards and downwards transformations, piccolo and bass flute, is the arena on which Ferneyhough projects some of his most extreme visions. Ferneyhough is a flautist himself, though as he admits he cannot play any of his own music for the instrument except for parts of the relatively early Cassandra's Dream Song. Elsewhere, look at Mnemosyne for bass flute plus a number of pre-recorded bass flute brothers; Superscriptio for piccolo; and above all the extraordinary Unity Capsule for solo flute, which goes about as far as musical complexity can go. This is the easiestway to get hold of them all:



There are similar pieces by other complexity composers - Dillon's Sgothan, pieces by Finnissy whose names momentarily escape me - all springing from the lineage started by Debussy and continued by Varese, Berio et al.

Jonathan Harvey's Lotuses for solo flute/alto flute/piccolo plus string quartet is a really beautiful, glowing piece, highly recommended. Hear it on a nice Arditti disc which I can't find a picture of!

Takemitsu, for whom the flute was probably the most important instrument, poised delicately between Debussy's syrinx and the Japanese shakuhachi, wrote a number of wonderful works for the instrument, as a soloist with orchestra (e.g. I Hear the Water Dreaming),as a soloist in chamber groups (the wonderful Towards the Sea, in its various versions) or on its own - (e.g. Voices, or his last piece, Air). There's a great CD on DG 21 featuring these works, Patrick Gallois soloist - it's actually one of the most attractive Takemitsu discs full stop IMO

[karlhenning]

Luke, your posts always pose a danger to my purse 

[Joe Barron]

In the 20th century, Edgard Varese's Density 21.5 is a major extension of solo flute repertiore. Elliott Carter wrote Scrivo in Vento, for solo flute, and has come out with a Flute Concerto, the US premiere of which will take place in Boston in February.

And since no one has mentioned it yet, Carl Nielsen wrote a great flute concerto, which has been recorded many times. I've got the one on Chandos, with Toke Lund Christiansen on flute and Michael Schoenwandt conducting the DNRSO, as well as the old Berstein recording with the New York Phil. Mine's vinyl, but you can get it  on CD as part of Sony's semi-complete Nielsen set.

[Cato]

Mahler's Ninth Symphony gives a good deal of time to the
flute(s).

And if you can find it anywhere, the original Bernard Herrmann score for Torn Curtain used a dozen flutes of various kinds!   

[jochanaan]

In addition to the above-mentioned works, there's Charles T. Griffes' Poem for Flute and Orchestra.

[Franco]

A nice collection of flute concertos from Brilliant

Flute Concertos

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bach, C P E:
Flute Concerto in D minor, Wq22
Ingrid Dingfelder (flute)
English Chamber Orchestra, Charles Mackerras

Benda, Franz:
Flute Concerto in E minor
András Adorján (flute)
Ars Rediviva Ensemble Prague, Milan Munclinger

Flute Concerto in A major
András Adorján (flute)
Ars Rediviva Ensemble Prague, Milan Munclinger

Flute Concerto in A minor
András Adorján (flute)
Ars Rediviva Ensemble Prague, Milan Munclinger

Boccherini:
Flute Concerto
Peter-Lukas Graf (flute)
Orchestra da Camera di Padova e del Veneto, Bruno Giuranna

Danzi:
Flute Concertos Nos. 1-4
András Adorján (flute)
Münchener Kammerorchester, Hans Stadlmair

Hoffmeister:
Flute Concertos in D major & C major
Ingrid Dingfelder (flute)
English Chamber Orchestra, Charles Mackerras

Mercadante:
Flute Concerto in E minor
Peter-Lukas Graf (flute)
Orchestra da Camera di Padova e del Veneto, Bruno Giuranna

Pergolesi:
Flute Concerto in G major
Peter-Lukas Graf (flute)
Orchestra da Camera di Padova e del Veneto, Bruno Giuranna

Piccinni:
Flute Concerto
Peter-Lukas Graf (flute)
Orchestra da Camera di Padova e del Veneto, Bruno Giuranna

Quantz:
Flute Concerto in G major
Peter-Lukas Graf (flute)
Zürcher Kammerorchester, Edmond de Stoutz

Stalder:
Flute Concerto in B flat major
Peter-Lukas Graf (flute)
Württenbergisches Kammerorchester, Jörg Faerber

Stamitz, C:
Flute Concerto in G major, Op. 29
Peter-Lukas Graf (flute)
Zürcher Kammerorchester, Edmond de Stoutz

$15.99

[Luke]

In the mid 18th century, so I've read, and under the influence of Quantz, the flute duet was seen as the form par excellence for the demonstration of arcane contrapuntal skills not necessarily over-important in the galant in general. Amongst the flute duets of this time the set by that wonderful composer WF Bach - JS's most naturally gifted son - stand head and shoulders above the others in both technique and content. It's a cliche to say of WF that his music combined his father's contrapuntal baroque skills with the forward-looking early classicism and empfindamser characteristics of his younger brothers, especially CPE, but it's true, and is demonstrated perfectly in these duos. One movement of them, the Lamentabile central movement of the D minor duo, became a very famous piece at the time. This is a rather beautiful performance of it:

http://www.youtube.com/v/CJWsgrHKtRU

[George]

All of the Flute chamber works by JS Bach are delightful!

The Flute concertos by Vivaldi are great, as are those by Mozart.

[Opus106]

And since no one has mentioned it yet, Carl Nielsen wrote a great flute concerto

To be fair to listener, he did.

[Brian]

Check out the second-to-last part of Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloe - or, if you can find the Suite No. 2, check out movement #2. You'll love it!

[listener]

Moe!
Composers to search at amazon or your other favourite web-store:
Franz Doppler   Charles Koechlin    Hotteterre

Messiaen  La merle noire

BIS CD-419  The Russian Flute   Prokofiev, Denisov,Taktakisvili and Amirov

players:  Jean-Pierrre Rampal, James Galway, Alain Marion, and for 20th century works Severino Gazzeloni

and budget-friendly Naxos 554 185  pieces by Sallinen, Takemitsu and Penderecki

and found when putting other dsics back  RCA 6602  Corigliano: Pied Piper Fantasy (Concerto for flute and orch.)
with Galway

and I'm having a senior moment - who wrote all those works for multiple flutes?   They really tested tweeters and vinyl tracking.

[Joe Barron]

To be fair to listener, he did.

Yeah, but I gave more detail.  

[Opus106]

Yeah, but I have more detail. 

[pjme]

Charles Koechlin : Les chants de Nectaire : a colossal set of 96 titles, 239 minutes of music ( opus numbers 198,199 and 200) - solo pieces for flute. Inspired by a character in Anatole France's novel "La révolte des anges". Nectaire is a flute-playing gardener....
Koechlin creates an entirely personal universe of almost mythical proportions, combining Greek mythology, Nature and religion. Dutch flautist leendert de Jonge (who recorded "Les chants" on 5 cd's) compares this music to a huge meditation in which silence plays an important role.

André Jolivet : fluteconcerto nr 2 ( suite en concert for flute and 4 percussion), Incantations for flute solo.

P.