Helena Macherel, Tjasha Gafner & London Mozart Players - Mozart (2024) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Make a recording of two of Mozart’s three flute concertos? For Helena Macherel, it felt like an obvious thing to do. “How could one say no to such an offer?” The patron of the arts, now deceased, who backed her for years, encouraged her in this direction. “I’m not looking for originality at any price, just to let myself be carried away by the beauty of the music, in a quest for truth and authenticity.” To achieve this, she can count on the accompaniment of English musicians well-versed in this kind of challenge: the London Mozart Players, whose experienced members provide not only the ensemble’s conducting but also the chamber partners for the Quartet in D major. “Far from coming up with a fixed vision of the works, I have, on the contrary, encouraged dialogue and exchange with them, and I am delighted with the spirit of freedom that permeates these recordings.”

The choice of the concerto (one of the two Mozart composed for solo flute) is a matter of colour: “We know and cherish the joyful, sunny, light-hearted Mozart, but what I like about the Concerto in D major is that this joy, which is still present, is at times tinged with seriousness, particularly in the slow movement. This characteristic is also to be found in the Quartet and the Flute and Harp Concerto and forms a sort of common thread.” Helena Macherel says she is particularly touched by Mozart’s ability to play with atmospheres, moving from major to minor “with the fragile subtlety of a veil thrown over the notes”. As a passionate composer herself (who hasn’t yet dared to reveal the fruits of her labours to the public), she tries in her own way to embrace the spirit in the cadenzas she wrote. “Mozart didn’t compose any himself, so I thought it would be interesting to add my personal touch to the cadenzas beyond those of Jean-Pierre Rampal or Emmanuel Pahud – the most frequently performed – or of Karlheinz Stockhausen, whose delirious mind I find too stuck in his own time. In the same back-to-the-roots approach that determines my reading of any score, I have tried to imagine what Mozart might have heard or wanted to hear. For example, this immersive approach has led me to take an interest in the practice of the traverso, which extends far beyond the strict framework of the instrument and the delicate question of historicity. Beyond the medium and the subtleties, it is the emotion that these musicians of the past wanted to convey that I am interested in transmitting as close as possible to the truth of the text.”

Tracklist:
1. Flute Quartet No. 1 in D Major, K. 285: I. Allegro (9:47)
2. Flute Quartet No. 1 in D Major, K. 285: II. Adagio (2:35)
3. Flute Quartet No. 1 in D Major, K. 285: III. Rondeau (4:38)
4. Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major, K. 314: I. Allegro aperto (7:24)
5. Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major, K. 314: II. Andante ma non troppo (6:56)
6. Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major, K. 314: III. Rondo. Allegro (6:07)
7. Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major, K. 299: I. Allegro (9:33)
8. Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major, K. 299: II. Andantino (8:19)
9. Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major, K. 299: III. Rondeau. Allegro (9:11)


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