Sonata P Gaubert Sonata 1:3 for Flute and Piano/Gallois/Lofstrand

"La flûte s'envole, et le piano la retient..
C'est fluide, lumineux, aérien !
Il fait beau ?
Ces ceux-là nous donnent envie de sautiller.
Il fait mauvais ?
Il nous apportent un peu de bonne humeur.
Peu connu, le compositeur P Gaubert, injustement oublié en tout cas, le cadet de Claude Debussy, que font revivre avec vitalité et raffinement le flûtiste Patrick Gallois et la pianiste Cecilia Lofstrand.
Une musique aussi jeune encore !"

"The flute flies away, and the piano holds it back.. It's fluid, luminous, airy! The weather is nice ? These ones make us want to jump. The weather is bad ? They bring us a little good humor. Little known, the composer Philippe Gaubert, unjustly forgotten in any case, the younger brother of Claude Debussy, brought to life with vitality and refinement by the flautist Patrick Gallois and the pianist Cecilia Lofstrand. Still such young music !”

Not many are familiarized with the music of Phillipe Gaubert(1879-1941), nor that he was the greatest flutist of the time, pupil of Julien Taffanel, chief conductor at the Opéra de Paris, teacher of the CNSM of Paris and composer of numerous pieces for flute, chamber music, symphonies(26!), ballets, operas and also a violin concerto.
He even won the Prize of Rome, before Maurice Ravel, before being forgotten to the afterworld.

There's much of opera in it, the flute as the singer and the piano the orchestra..
Not easy at times for the pianist, beacause the piano score is more adapted technically for the orchestra score than for the art of piano.

Patrick Gallois' first flute teacher, Albert Carette, was himself a pupil of Gaubert, and he transferred the taste and tradition of the composer to his own pupils.

Patrick Gallois had for a long time wished to record these Sonatas and now was the time to do so.
We were very happy that this cd was given 5 Diapason in the classical, French magazine "Diapason".

What nobody knows, except from those working with us in the recording studio, was that the pianist had to walk on eggshells, in order not to drown.

Even though the musical making and collaboration between Patrick and me was absolutely fluid, effortless, intuitive, accorded in the same taste and spirit, the piano gave me some real alchemical challenge :

A huge grand piano in a tiny studo, a Bösendorfer I believe ?, wasn't grounded properly through its legs, and it showed simultaneously its beauty, beast, love and teeth under my fingers.
We tried to add magnets and stuff to it, and it helped a little.

But I had to tame and master it in every single tone and sound, like a wild creature coming for tenderness and peace.

I remember this recording as thus :
An effortless, evident union between musicians.
A wild, untamed force balanced into peace, between Flute and Piano.

What are the Gaubert Sonatas to me ?

I feel and see the flight of a bird, the flute, diving, rising, floating and flying towards and with the deep ocean, the piano.
Between the passionate waves, the profound waters, and the light sky is a duo of harmony created.
They reach for each others hands.
A couple that calls upon light. Upon Love.