DOROTHEA SEEL
October 2020
In this fundamental work, Dorothea Seel opens up a completely new perspective on 19th-century flute music from Beethoven to Mahler. On the basis of a representative selection of solo, chamber and orchestral literature, she illustrates the specific conditions in the musical centres of Europe with regard to instrumentation, performers and sound aesthetics. Based on a meticulous evaluation of historical sources, Seel creates a richly differentiated musical map of a sound art that has been lost today.
Audio samples on CD make this foray through diverse soundscapes forgotten in today's practice a sensual experience.
Folgenden Institutionen sei für die Ermöglichung dieser Publikation herzlich gedankt:
Stadt Graz, Kultur und Wissenschaft
April 2020
Gesellschaft der Freunde der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, Hinker-Fonds
Land Steiermark, Referat Wissenschaft und Forschung
The repertoire on this new CD is quite unusual, but puts the spotlight on an important part of 19th-century music performance: the fantasy on famous opera themes.
A broad selection of tunes from well-known operas are featured in highly virtuoso contemporary arrangements of the romantic era and form an impressive picture of the performance practice of that time.
For this recording I use three original 19th century flutes and Christoph plays on an original fortepiano by Conrad Graf.
In order to reproduce the sound world of the 19th century in the best possible way, we also feature a variety of special techniques such as muted tones and different types of vibrato on the flute, as well as special colours on the fortepiano as provided by the different register pedals.
A comprehensive booklet provides insight into the history of the genre and its practice.