Elégance Classique

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 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, inspired scores emerged from this rarely exploited combination. The most remarkable examples come from the pen of Mozart. The "Adagio" of his Quartet for flute and strings K.

285, a gem of the galant style, is "a page of the most exquisite melancholy, perhaps the finest solo with accompaniment ever written for flute" (Alfred Einstein). Unfortunately overshadowed by his eminent contemporaries, Dotzauer is scarcely known beyond cellists. His Quartet op.

38 nonetheless displays a refinement that is wholly Mozartian. A trained flautist, 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 belongs to the Viennese Classical mould while bearing personal accents and an abundance of original ideas.