Fluteland.com Flute Message Board

I have 7-8 months to prepare a concerto for my school's concerto competition, so it's not like I want to go in playing Baa Baa Black Sheep for Flute and Orchestra. Buuuut, I don't think I'd be able to prepare something along the lines of Ibert or Nielsen either. So far I'm looking at Hue, Griffes, and first movement of Reinecke (which might be a problem memorizing, but then again I've got half a year). Any other suggestions of possible pieces I could play? I do not want to do Mozart - I know them both, but there's too much risk of it being put into too much of a Mozart-has-to-be-exactly-like-this mindset that I'd get in the preliminary round (which is judged by the other members of the flute studio), if that makes sense.

Mercadante wrote three concerti that I like very much: D major, e minor, or E major (in order of difficulty).

If you like Reinecke, he also wrote a Ballade for flute and orchestra which is a really nice piece and probably easier to memorise than the concerto.

Several very nice Vivaldi concerti are out there, and they tend to show much about your playing: technique, musicianship, appropriate style, articulation, etc. I also like the Mercadante suggestions, and would add Telemann and Leclair to the mix. Telemann D major is a wonderful concerto; so is Leclair's C major.

SK

Just my opinion, but I would not choose Reinecke for something like this. It is longer and unless your judges are big fans of very late romantic Germanic flute music, in my view, it does not make for a good competition piece (and I say the same for the Ballade). Both are beautiful compositions; but in a competitive context they are somewhat boring. Griffes is always a risky piece, too, in my opinion because although it's a great piece of music it is not much of a "wow" piece. The "showy" parts of Griffes are sandwiched between some rather long and morose passages. To me, in competitive playing you should always make sure that if a piece is difficult to play that it also sounds difficult. That's the problem with Griffes and (particularly) Reinecke in a competition setting; neither piece comes off successfully as sounding as difficult as it really is.

Again, these are strictly my own opinions and I'm sure others will disagree. Just trying to help.

SK

sidekicker - i get what you're saying about the reinecke. (although - i think the aim in a competition is to make a piece that is difficult sound like it's not - for you anyway. haha!)

i usually think baroque pieces aren't appropriate for eisteddfods and competitions but it's hard for me to say because i don't know this competition. also vivaldi has a lot of life it in naturally so maybe that's different if you do it well.

I would suggest considered a Devienne concerto, if you like the classical period! They feel comfortable to a player if you’ve played Mozart before, but the character is a bit different. No 7 in e minor is my favorite, personally.