Search - Linda Marianiello;flute;Robert Morrison;piano :: Consolations: Romantic Music for Flute & Piano

In the nineteenth century, King Ludwig II built an opera house for the great composer Richard Wagner on a hill above Bayreuth, a beautiful town in Northern Bavaria. Franz Liszt was a close friend of the Wagner family, a great admirer of Wagner's music, and a frequent guest in Bayreuth. Both Wagner and Liszt collaborated with Eduard Steingraeber, the highly regarded piano builder who constructed the deep bells for Wagner's opera, Parsifal. In 1873, Steingraeber also built one of the earliest grand pianos, an instrument that was very advanced for its time. This Liszt grand piano was the inspiration for this recording of Romantic works for flute and piano. American flutist Linda Marianiello was invited to give a number of recitals at Steingraeber Haus in Bayreuth. Since Liszt's time, the piano has resided in the small concert hall of this lovely Rococo palace. Steingraeber Haus is still home to the present generation of Steingraeber & Sons piano manufacturers which, in the tradition of Eduard Steingraeber, continues to innovate through collaborations with artists. The music for this recording was selected with the ambience of a nineteenth-century salon or small concert hall in mind. Nineteenth-century flute and piano repertoire sounds surprisingly different when played on a 1930 Powell flute with a period grand piano. As modern listeners, we sometimes forget that Romantic composers had rather different instruments at their disposal. For example, the 1873 Steingraeber grand piano has a wider color palette, many more dynamic levels between pianissimo and mezzo forte, an entirely different articulation that blends more expressively with the flute, and less volume than today's concert grands. The quieter timbre virtually eliminates balance problems in textures that are characterized by active, soloistic piano writing which can easily cover the flute, especially in the lower register. By nature, this music features both instruments in equal partnership and neither should dominate. Cesar Franck, Franz Liszt, and Charles Marie Widor are familiar names to aficionados of Romantic music. Lesser known, but equally worthy of a place on any flute album, is the lovely, impressionistic Sonata in A major by flutist-composer Philippe Gaubert, who was not only a flutist and esteemed teacher, but music director of the Paris Opera as well. Linda Marianiello is a flutist with a vision, who showed a commitment to excellence in performance as well as innovative repertory wrote The Washington Post. An internationally-proclaimed artist, from whom one expects an inspired performance. The public reacted to this thrilling, compelling rendition with stormy applause wrote the Bayreuth press. Her credits include concerto appearances with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Orchester Concerto Armonico in Oberammergau, New American Chamber Orchestra in Spain, Fairfield Chamber Orchestra, Wyoming Symphony, Mercury Ensemble and Musica Sacra Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Marianiello has performed at world-renowned European festivals and venues in Bayreuth, Salzburg, Potsdam-Sanssouci, Oberammergau, Deya-Mallorca, Elba and Graz. In addition to appearances in numerous well-known concert series throughout North America, she receives frequent invitations to play at National Flute Association conventions, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and Minneapolis. Marianiello is also sought after for master classes around the world, and has taught at the City University of New York-Brooklyn College and Colorado State University. She has been a guest artist at numerous universities including Yale, Cornell, Northwestern, Rhodes College, Miami University of Ohio, SUNY-Fredonia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou, China.