A
flute concerto is a
concertoA concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
for solo
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and instrumental ensemble, customarily the
orchestraAn orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
. Such works have been written from the
BaroqueBaroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day. Some major composers have contributed to the flute concerto repertoire, with the best known works including those by
MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, and
VivaldiAntonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
.
Traditionally a three-movement work, the modern-day flute concerto has occasionally been structured in four or more movements. In some flute concertos, especially from the Baroque and modern eras, the flute is accompanied by a
chamber ensembleChamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
rather than an orchestra.
The 20th century saw the flute concerto championed by the famous
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
flutist
Jean-Pierre RampalJean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."-Early years:...
.
Selected repertoire
The following concertos are presently found near the centre of the mainstream Western repertoire for the flute.
Baroque
Michel BlavetMichel Blavet was a French flute virtuoso born in Besançon, France. Although Blavet taught himself to play almost every instrument, he specialized in the bassoon and the flute which he held to the left, the opposite of how most flutists hold theirs today.-Life:The son of a wood turner, a...
Jean-Marie LeclairJean-Marie Leclair l'aîné, also known as Jean-Marie Leclair the Elder, was a Baroque violinist and composer. He is considered to have founded the French violin school...
Giovanni Battista PergolesiGiovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
- Flute Concerto in G major
Johann Joachim QuantzJohann Joachim Quantz was a German flutist, flute maker and composer.-Biography:Quantz was born in Oberscheden, near Göttingen, Germany, and died in Potsdam....
(1697–1773) - author of over 300 concertos for the flute.
- Concerto in G major
- Concerto in C minor
Georg Philipp TelemannGeorg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually...
Antonio VivaldiAntonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
- Concerto in F major for Flute ("La Tempesta di Mare"), RV 433 (Op. 10, No. 1), RV 98 and RV 570
- Concerto in G minor for Flute ("La Notte"), RV 439 (Op. 10, No. 2)
- Concerto in D major for Flute ("Il Gardellino"), RV 428 (Op. 10 No. 3)
- Concerto in G major for Flute, RV 435 (Op. 10, No. 4)
- Concerto in F major for Flute, RV 434 (Op. 10, No. 5)
- Concerto in G major for Flute, RV 437 (Op. 10, No. 6)
- Concerto in C major for 2 Flutes, RV 533
Classical
C.P.E. Bach (1714–1788)
- Flute Concerto in D major
- Flute Concerto in G major H.445 (Wq.169)
- Flute Concerto in D minor H.426
- Flute Concerto in A major H.438 (Wq.168)
Franz BendaFranz Benda was a Czech violinist and composer. He was the brother of Jiří Antonín Benda, and he worked for much of his life at the court of Frederick the Great....
(1709–1786)
- Concerto in G minor
- Concerto in A minor
Domenico CimarosaDomenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...
- Concerto for Two Flutes in G Major (1783)
Franz DanziFranz Ignaz Danzi was a German cellist, composer and conductor, the son of the noted Italian cellist Innocenz Danzi. Born in Schwetzingen, Franz Danzi worked in Mannheim, Munich, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, where he died....
- Concerto No. 1 in G major
- Concerto No. 2 in D minor
- Concerto No. 3 in D minor
- Concerto No. 4 in D major
François DevienneFrançois Devienne was a French composer and professor for flute at the Paris Conservatory.François Devienne was born in Joinville , as the youngest of fourteen children of a saddlemaker...
- Concerto No. 2 in D major
- Concerto No. 3 in G major
- Concerto No. 7 in E minor
- Concerto No. 10 in D major
Frederick the Great (1712–1786)
Christoph Willibald GluckChristoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
Joseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
- Flute Concerto in D major
Franz Paul Lachner
- Flute Concerto in D minor
Leopold Hoffmann
Franz Anton HoffmeisterFranz Anton Hoffmeister was a German composer and music publisher.Born in Rottenburg am Neckar, he went to Vienna at the age of fourteen to study law...
Franz KrommerFranz Krommer was a Czech composer of classical music, whose seventy-year life began the year of the death of George Frideric Handel and ended a few years after that of Ludwig van Beethoven.-Life:The main events of his life were somewhat as follows:* From 1773 to 1776,...
Bernhard Molique
- Concerto in D minor for Flute and Orchestra
Leopold MozartJohann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
- Flute Concerto in G major
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
- Concerto for Flute and Harp
- Flute Concerto No. 1
The Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major was written in 1778 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Commissioned by the Dutch flautist Ferdinand De Jean in 1777, Mozart was supposed to provide four flute quartets and three flute concerti, yet he only completed two of the three concerti: K. 313 being the first....
- Flute Concerto No. 2 - originally written as an Oboe Concerto but now also firmly part of the flute repertoire.
Andreas RombergAndreas Jakob Romberg was a German violinist and composer. Romberg learned the violin from his musician father Gerhard Heinrich Romberg and first performed in public at the age of six. In addition to touring Europe, Romberg also joined the Münster Court Orchestra...
Antonio RosettiAntonio Rosetti was a classical era composer and double bass player, and was a contemporary of Haydn and Mozart....
- Flute Concerto in G major
- Flute Concerto in C major
- Flute Concerto in F major
Antonio SalieriAntonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
- Concerto for Flute, Oboe and Orchestra (1774)
- Concertino da camera for Flute and Strings (1777)
Karl Stamitz
Peter von Winter
- Flute Concerto No. 1 in D minor
- Flute Concerto No. 2 in D minor
Romantic
Franz DopplerAlbert Franz Doppler , was a flute virtuoso and a composer best known for his flute music. He also wrote one German and several Hungarian operas for Budapest, all produced with great success. His ballet music was popular during his lifetime.-Life:Doppler was born in Lemberg...
- Concerto in D minor for two flutes and orchestra
Bernhard RombergBernhard Heinrich Romberg , was a German cellist and composer.-Life:Romberg was born at Dinklage. His father, Anton Romberg, played the bassoon and cello and gave Bernhard his first cello lessons. He first performed in public at the age of seven...
- Concerto in B minor 0202 2000 Strings
Saverio MercadanteGiuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as impressive a number of works as either; and his development of...
- Concerto in D major
- Concerto in E major
- Concerto in E minor
- Concerto in F major (2 movements)
François BorneFrançois Borne , sometimes spelled Bourne, was a French flautist playing with the orchestra of "Le Grand Théatre de Bordeaux" , composer and professor at "Conservatoire de Musique de Toulouse" . He is recognized for technical improvements to the flute...
- Carmen Fantasie Brillante
Peter Benoit
- Flute Concerto (Symphonic Tale)
Camille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
Carl ReineckeCarl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke was a German composer, conductor, and pianist.-Biography:Reinecke was born in Altona, Hamburg, Germany; until 1864 the town was under Danish rule. He studied with his father, Johann Peter Rudolph Reinecke, a music teacher...
- Concerto in D major, Op. 283
Carl Gottlieb ReissigerCarl Gottlieb Reißiger was a German Kapellmeister and composer.-Biography:...
- Concertino in D major for Flute and Orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
- Concertstuck for flute and strings TH 247 (unfinished)
Reconstructed by James Strauss published by Falls House Press (USA)
Modern
Samuel AdlerSamuel Hans Adler is an American composer and conductor.-Biography:Adler was born to a Jewish family in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Hugo Chaim Adler, a cantor and composer, and Selma Adler. The family fled to the United States in 1939, where Hugo became the cantor of Temple Emanuel in...
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (1977)
Kalevi AhoKalevi Aho is a Finnish composer.- Career :Born in Forssa, he studied composition at the Sibelius Academy under Einojuhani Rautavaara, receiving a diploma in 1971. He continued his studies for a year in Berlin with Boris Blacher...
Robert AitkenRobert Morris Aitken, is a Canadian composer and flautist. He began his career as a teenager playing in a number of orchestras, notably becoming the youngest principal flautist in the history of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1958 at the age if 19. In 1971 he abandoned ensemble performance...
- Concerto for Flute and String Orchestra (Shadows V). (1999)
Leonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
- Halil
Halil is a work for flute and chamber orchestra composed by Leonard Bernstein composed in 1981. The work is sixteen minutes in length. Bernstein composed Halil in honor of a young Israeli flutist Yadin Tanenbaum who was killed at the Suez Canal in during the 1973 Yom Kippur war...
, nocturne for flute, percussion, and strings
Rutland Boughton Rutland Boughton was an English composer who became well known in the early 20th century as a composer of opera and choral music....
- Concerto for Flute and Strings
Pierre BoulezPierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
- ...explosante-fixe..., for MIDI-flute, chamber orchestra and electronics (1972–1993)
Robert J. Bradshaw
- Concerto No. 2 for Catherine, for flute, violin, orchestra and/or piano
Henry BrantHenry Dreyfuss Brant was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques.- Biography :...
- Ghosts & Gargoyles Concerto for flute solo with flute orchestra (2002)
John CarmichaelJohn Carmichael VC MM was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra: Phoenix Concerto 2222-4331 perc, harp, string, timpani
John CoriglianoJohn Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra: Pied Piper Fantasy
Edison DenisovEdison Vasilievich Denisov was a Russian composer of so called "Underground" — "Anti-Collectivist", "alternative" or "nonconformist" division in the Soviet music.-Biography:...
Jindřich FeldJindřich Feld was a Czech composer of classical music.-Biography:Feld was born into a musical family, his father a well-known professor of violin at the Prague Conservatory which followed the tradition of Otakar Ševčík, the master of Jan Kubelík. His mother was a violinist...
Morton FeldmanMorton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...
- Flute and Orchestra (1978)
Jean FrançaixJean René Désiré Françaix was a French neoclassical composer, pianist, and orchestrator, known for his prolific output and vibrant style.-Life:...
- Double Concerto for Flute, Clarinet and Orchestra
- Flute Concerto (1967)
Otar GordeliOtar Gordeli was a composer in the country of Georgia.Gordeli was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. He was educated at the Tbilisi State Conservatory.- Works :* Piano Quintet...
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 8
Charles Tomlinson Griffes
- Poem for Flute and Orchestra
Chris Harman
- Concerto for flute and orchestra, Catacombs (1999–2000)
Jacques HétuJacques Hétu, OC was a Canadian composer and music educator from Trois-Rivières, Quebec. He was nominated for a 1989 Juno Award in the Best Classical Composition category...
Jacques IbertJacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...
Andre JolivetAndré Jolivet was a French composer. Known for his devotion to French culture and musical thought, Jolivet's music draws on his interest in acoustics and atonality as well as both ancient and modern influences in music, particularly on instruments used in ancient times...
Aram KhachaturianAram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra - originally written as a Violin concerto but now firmly part of the flute repertoire.
Lowell LiebermannLowell Liebermann is an American composer, pianist and conductor.At the age of sixteen, Liebermann performed at Carnegie Hall, playing his Piano Sonata, op. 1...
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra Op.39 (1992)
- Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra Op.48 (1995)
György LigetiGyörgy Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
- Double Concerto, for flute, oboe and orchestra
Dietrich Manicke
Olivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
- Concert à quatre
Concert à quatre is one of the final works of the French composer Olivier Messiaen.Written between 1990 and 1991, Messiaen originally intended the piece to have five movements. However, work on another large-scale piece, Éclairs sur l'au-delà…, prevented him from completing it before his death...
("Quadruple concerto"), for piano, flute, oboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
, 'cello and orchestra (1990–91)
Arthur FooteArthur William Foote was an American classical composer, and a member of the "Boston Six." The other five were George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker.The modern tendency is to view Foote’s music as “Romantic” and “European” in light of the...
- Nocturne and Scherzo for Flute and String Orchestra
Sir Malcolm Arnold
- Concerto for Flute and Strings
- Flute Concerto No. 2
Eduardo Angulo
- Flute Concerto
- Double Concerto for Flute and Harp
Leonid Bashmakov
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra Impressioni marine
Michael Mower
- Concerto for Flute and Wind Band
Thorkell Sigurbjornsson
- Liongate for Flute and Orchestra
Howard HansonHoward Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music...
- Serenade for Solo Flute, Harp and String Orchestra
Carl NielsenCarl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
Krzysztof PendereckiKrzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...
William P. PerryWilliam P. Perry is an American composer and television producer.-Life and career:Born in Elmira, New York in 1930, he attended Harvard University and studied with Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson...
- Summer Nocturne for Flute and Orchestra (1988)
Walter PistonWalter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (1971)
Yves PrinYves Prin is a French composer and conductor of classical music.-Life:He studied piano with Yves Nat and conducting with Louis Fourestier at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he won several first prizes....
Einojuhani RautavaaraEinojuhani Rautavaara is a Finnish composer of contemporary classical music, and is one of the most notable Finnish composers after Jean Sibelius.-Life:...
- Flute Concerto Dances with the Winds
Jean RivierJean Rivier was a French composer of classical music.He composed over two hundred works, including music for orchestra, chamber groups, chorus, piano, and solo instruments....
Joaquín RodrigoJoaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez , commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success...
- Concierto pastoral
The Concierto pastoral is a concerto for flute and orchestra by Joaquín Rodrigo. Rodrigo wrote the work from 1977-1978 on commission from James Galway, who had first encountered the composer's work in 1974 when he asked permission to transcribe the Fantasia para un Gentilhombre for flute...
, for flute and orchestra (1978)
Ned RoremNed Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
Christopher Rouse
Aulis SallinenAulis Sallinen is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. He writes in a modern, though tonal and not experimental music style. He studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen...
- Flute Concerto Harlekiini, Op. 70 (1995)
R. Murray SchaferRaymond Murray Schafer is a Canadian composer, writer, music educator and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book The Tuning of the World...