Elégance Classique

The programme: DOTZAUER Quartet for flute and string trio in A minor, Op.

The programme:

DOTZAUER Quartet for flute and string trio in A minor, Op. 38

REICHA Quartet No. 3 for flute and string trio in G major, Op. 98

MOZART Quartet for flute and string trio in D major, K. 285

The artists:

Marina Chamot-Leguay, flute

Émeline Concé, violin

Jossalyn Jensen, viola

Benoît Grenet, cello

The marriage of bowed strings with the crystalline song of the transverse flute brings out the eloquence and grace of the classical style. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, inspired scores emerged from this too rarely exploited ensemble. The most remarkable examples appear under the pen of Mozart. The “Adagio” from his Flute Quartet and Strings K. 285, a jewel of the galant style, is “a page of the most exquisite melancholy, perhaps the most beautiful solo with accompaniment ever written for flute” (Alfred Einstein). Unfortunately overshadowed by his eminent contemporaries, Dotzauer is barely known except to cellists. His Quartet Op. 38 nevertheless displays a Mozartean refinement. A flautist by training, Reicha met Haydn and played alongside Beethoven in Bonn before emigrating to Paris. It was there that he wrote his Quartets for flute and strings Op. 98. He fits into the Viennese classical mould while having personal accents and a profusion of original ideas.