CONCERTO No7 in E minor

François Devienne

in E minor

– Flute traversière et piano mi mineur / révision Jean-Pierre Rampal

Partition - Flûte et Piano

IMC - International Music

François Devienne, one of the leading flute virtuosi of his generation, was also a prolific and successful composer particularly of works for wind instruments. Unsurprisingly, he wrote an important corpus of music for flute including a dozen flute concertos all of which were published in his lifetime. The six works offered here are characteristic of Devienne's style, elegant and approachable yet challenging enough technically to be rewarding to the most experienced player.

Written in 1787, the Flute Concerto No. 7 in E Minor is the best of the, count ‘em, one dozen Flute Concertos by Francois Devienne (1759 - 1803). Devienne himself is often referred to as the “French Mozart,” though I think that’s a generous comparison. His life did span roughly the same time period as Mozart - he was born only three years after Mozart, and he lived twelve years past Mozart’s early death in 1791 - so it’s likely that the two men had very similar musical eduations. Devienne’s style is certainly high Classical in terms of form and style, and this Concerto allows for a level of overt virtuosity that the Mozart Concerti lack. Much of the Concerto in E minor fits well under the fingers, and the audience will assume the level of difficulty to be considerably higher than the flutist performing on stage.