Flute Concertos and Symphony No. 41 Jupiter

DSD / 2 Channel / 6 Channel SACD - Playable on all CD players

Continuing with their tradition of recording great works in a period fashion, Boston Baroque returns with special guest flutist Jacques Zoon, who records on period flute for the first time on Mozart's two glorious Flute Concertos. Rounding out the program on this recording is Mozart's great "Jupiter" Symphony.

Mozart was commissioned by Ferdinand de Jean to compose "three short, simple concertos and a couple of quartets for the flute," and from this commission came the two flute concertos on this recording plus a pair of quartets for flute and strings. Mozart never did write the third concerto, and as it turns out, the second was not an original work. When the parts to Mozart's C Major Oboe Concerto were discovered in Salzburg in 1920, it became clear that his Flute Concerto in D was simply a reworking of the Oboe Concerto. The reason Mozart gave for not completing the commission was notated in a letter to his father where he said, "You know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear." However, "whatever his true feelings about the instrument, he managed to write brilliantly for it," said Boston Baroque conductor Martin Pearlman in the liner notes.

Master flutist Jacques Zoon, winner of the Prix special du Jury at the Jean-Pierre Rampal competition in Paris, plays with remarkable gusto and compassion. This recording marks the first time Zoon has recorded on a period instrument. He used a flute that was built by Rudolf Tutz in Innsbruck which is a copy of a flute made by August Grenser in Dresden at the end of the eighteenth century. It is a classical flute with six keys and is tuned approximately a quarter step lower than modern pitch. Zoon is an active chamber musician, performing with such ensembles as the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Boston Symphony Chamber Players and the Amati Quartet. He maintains a keen interest in the mechanical aspects of the flute and has published his findings on making technical improvements to the instrument. Wooden flutes are built according to his own design by Williams Flutes, Boston.

During the late summer of 1788, Mozart completed what would be his last symphony, the "Jupiter" Symphony. During this same year, Mozart added thirty new works to his catalogue. The name "Jupiter" was attached to this work after Mozart's death and has been traced to Johann Peter Salomon, the English impresario who had commissioned Haydn's last twelve symphonies. "From its very opening," says Pearlman, "the symphony has a weightiness in both sonority and character that sets it apart from most other symphonies by Mozart or his contemporaries."

Martin Pearlman, founder, music director and conductor of Boston Baroque, is among this country's leading interpreters of baroque and classical music on both period and modern instruments. Hailed for his "fresh, buoyant interpretations" and his "vivid realizations teeming with life," Pearlman has been acclaimed for more than twenty-five years in orchestral, choral and operatic repertoire from Monteverdi to Beethoven. Boston Baroque embarked on a new journey last summer with debuts at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Tanglewood Music Festival and Ravinia each performance was critically acclaimed and helped to increase the ensembles ever-growing fan base.