Supposedly, Mozart once made a joke:
“What’s worse than the sound of a flute? - Two flutes.”
We’ll never know if it is real. Somehow anecdotally humors turned into being that Mozart hated the flute. But, when one listens to his flute and harp concerto, this seems hard to believe anyway.
But it’s true that Mozart seldom offer to write works for flute alone. He said so himself, in a letter to his father. He said he couldn’t abide the sound of a solo flute and found it difficult to compose for a flute. Mozart was struggling to fulfill a commission from an amateur musician for numerous flute works (including his two concertos for the instrument) when he penned those disparaging words to his father; he sounds like a procrastinating student making excuses for not finishing his homework:
“I never have a quiet hour here … besides, one is not always in the mood for working. I could certainly scribble things the whole day long, but when a composition of this kind goes out into the world, naturally I do not want to to be ashamed of my name on the title page. Moreover, you know I am quite powerless to write for an instrument [the flute] which I cannot bear.”
Certainly, his compositions for the flute don’t come across as something he detested. But Mozart did have a lot of violin concertos. Emmanuel Pahud’s new release, Mozart Stories, beautifully transcribed two of Mozart’s most innovative violin works into flute versions. The album is recorded with Pahud’s long term pal, Eric La Sage for the piano accompany.
Absolutely worthwhile listening.