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Four Sonatas for Flute & Piano

Francis Poulenc composer
Jindřich Feld composer
César Franck composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal transcriber
Arthur Gottschalk composer

Linda Wiley flute
Mei-En Chou piano
Scott Holshouser piano
Andreea Muţ piano

Release Date: April 5, 2024
Catalog #: NV6611
Format: Digital
21st Century
Romantic
Chamber
Flute
Piano

Virtuoso Linda Wiley performs four flute sonatas from 19th and 20th century composers on FOUR SONATAS FOR FLUTE AND PIANO. The album fulfills her aspiration to record pieces that are both challenging and also personally meaningful to her. These include Sonata For Flute And Piano by Francis Poulenc, Sonate Pour Flûte Et Piano by Jindřich Feld, Sonata In A Major by César Franck, and Recuerdos De Mexico, Sonata for Flute and Piano by Arthur Gottschalk. Many of the works share a connection to legendary French flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal; Wiley’s flute mentor Jan Cole studied under Rampal for five years, and Wiley is proud to carry on her musical lineage in this Navona Records release.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Sonata for Flute and Piano: I. Allegro malinconico Francis Poulenc Linda Wiley, flute; Mei-En Chou, piano 5:01
02 Sonata for Flute and Piano: II. Cantilena Francis Poulenc Linda Wiley, flute; Mei-En Chou, piano 4:21
03 Sonata for Flute and Piano: III. Presto giocoso Francis Poulenc Linda Wiley, flute; Mei-En Chou, piano 3:42
04 Sonate pour flûte et piano: I. Allegro giocoso Jindřich Feld Linda Wiley, flute; Andreea Muţ, piano 4:32
05 Sonate pour flûte et piano: II. Grave Jindřich Feld Linda Wiley, flute; Andreea Muţ, piano 9:15
06 Sonate pour flûte et piano: III. Allegro vivace Jindřich Feld Linda Wiley, flute; Andreea Muţ, piano 6:39
07 Sonata in A Major: I. Allegretto ben moderato César Franck, trans. Jean-Pierre Rampal Linda Wiley, flute; Scott Holshouser, piano 5:26
08 Sonata in A Major: II. Allegro César Franck, trans. Jean-Pierre Rampal Linda Wiley, flute; Scott Holshouser, piano 7:38
09 Sonata in A Major: III. Recitativo - Fantasia César Franck, trans. Jean-Pierre Rampal Linda Wiley, flute; Scott Holshouser, piano 6:49
10 Sonata in A Major: IV. Allegretto poco mosso César Franck, trans. Jean-Pierre Rampal Linda Wiley, flute; Scott Holshouser, piano 5:59
11 Recuerdos de Mexico: I. Huapango Arthur Gottschalk Linda Wiley, flute; Mei-En Chou, piano 4:53
12 Recuerdos de Mexico: II. Llorona Arthur Gottschalk Linda Wiley, flute; Mei-En Chou, piano 5:07
13 Recuerdos de Mexico: III. Yaqui Arthur Gottschalk Linda Wiley, flute; Mei-En Chou, piano 4:26

Recorded December 12, 2022 & June 6, 2023 at Wire Road Studios in Houston TX
Session Engineer Andrew Bradley
Editing & Mixing Andrew Bradley
Mastering Melanie Montgomery

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming, Morgan Hauber
Publicity Kacie Brown
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

Linda Wiley

Flutist

Flutist Linda Wiley studied at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville TX, earning a B.M. Education degree in 1975 and an M.A. in performance in 1977. While at SHSU, she studied flute with Jan Cole, who had studied privately with Jean-Pierre Rampal for five years. Unrelated to flute performance, Wiley earned a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary education from Texas A&M University in 1986.

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Art-Gottschalk

Arthur Gottschalk

Composer

Arthur Gottschalk is Professor of Music Composition at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he founded and directed the school’s electronic music laboratories until 2002, and chaired the composition and theory department for 15 years. His early work as a studio musician led to his co-founding of Modern Music Ventures, Inc., a company which held a recording studio complex, a record production division, four publishing firms, and an artist management division, and for whom he produced records for the PolyGram and Capitol labels, among others.

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Mei-En Chou

pianist

International-trained pianist Mei-En Chou grew up surrounded by classical music and developed a passion for music and life. Seeking to inspire diverse audiences through performance and teaching, Chou maintains a private studio, teaches at Tallowood Academy of Fine Arts, and is a freelance pianist in the Houston area. With a love of chamber music, she has shared the stage with distinguished performers in many states and has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras. As a passionate teacher who loves sharing music with others, Chou taught at Louisiana College (Pineville LA) as an Assistant Professor and Artist in Residence from 2008-2016 and has served as an adjudicator for competitions and festivals. Chou holds a doctoral degree in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music at Eastman School of Music, under the tutelage of Jean Barr. She also attended the Collaborative Piano Program at the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2018. She earned her Master’s in Piano Performance from the University of North Texas with Pamela Mia Paul, and received a bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan Normal University. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling with her husband Henry Chen and observing the antics of their neighborhood ducks. More info about her can be found at meienchou.com

Andreea Muţ

pianist

Andreea Muţ is a prolific collaborative pianist and educator based in Houston TX. She has performed recitals throughout Romania, France, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States, and won numerous prizes in national and international competitions in her native Romania. She moved to Texas in 2009, and completed her Doctorate in Collaborative Arts at the University of Houston in 2015.

Muţ holds the keyboard chair for ROCO Houston, and has enjoyed collaborations with organizations such as Da Camera Houston, APERIO – Music of the Americas, Opera in the Heights, the Foundation for Modern Music, the Texas New Music Ensemble, Houston Symphony Chorus, the Texas Music Festival, Opera San Antonio, Houston Youth Symphony, Songs by Heart Foundation, and the Classical Music Institute in San Antonio TX. She also performs regularly as part of the Gerling-Muț duo in the Harmony in the Air series at the Hobby Airport, along with violinist Ingrid Gerling.

In addition to her numerous performance obligations, Muţ is currently serving as staff pianist and vocal coach at the University of Houston, organist and pianist at St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church, Houston, and pianist for the Grammy-winning Houston Chamber Choir.

Muț has been a Shigeru Kawai Artist since August 2021.

Scott Holshouser

pianist

Scott Holshouser, principal keyboardist with the Houston Symphony, has been a member of the orchestra since 1980. He began his musical training in Athens GA and attended Florida State University before moving to Houston to continue his studies at the University of Houston. He is now a member of the faculty at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music.

He is a former staff pianist with the Houston Ballet and the Houston Grand Opera and presently is the accompanist for the Houston Symphony Chorus, the Ima Hogg National Young Artist Competition, and the Corpus Christi Young Artist Competition.

Notes

First of all, regarding my “Flute Family Tree,” I am of the Rampal lineage. In my six years (1971-1977) at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville TX (earning a B.M. in Education and an M.A. in performance), I studied with Jan Cole, who had studied privately with Jean-Pierre Rampal for five years.

After graduating from SHSU in 1977, I performed as a freelance musician. During that time my interest and effort turned more toward private flute instruction. While I continued to perform, I was more intent on building my studio numbers. I soon was traveling to several towns and teaching dozens of students.

Then in 1979 I received an offer to teach for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (everything BUT flute). For the next 20 years, I put aside the flute. But the flute did not put me aside. In the mid-1990s I began to realize how much I missed playing, and I began to practice again.

In 1997 I began a wonderful musical collaboration with Robert H. “Bob” Leslie, a great pianist who was at the time also the Presbyterian minister in my hometown of Bryan TX. Over the next 20 years, we gave recitals in several area towns.

During this time I also performed in numerous pit orchestras for musical productions in both the community and SHSU. I also expanded my playing style, adding a bit of jazz, by playing regularly at a local restaurant.

By 2006 or so I also began collaborating with another accomplished pianist, Jerry Lynn Foster. While we performed only rarely, we greatly enjoyed challenging ourselves with really difficult pieces.

In 2019, I suddenly realized that I wanted to — while I still could — document my playing in a professional setting. My dream was to record pieces that are both challenging and also favorites of mine. This was partially due to the interest of family and friends who said, “Gee, I’d love to hear you play.”

But it’s actually more than that. I have always wanted to share my music with others. But lacking a university faculty position or other professional affiliation has made that difficult. Recording my playing seemed to be an acceptable alternative.

And I do want to acknowledge and thank the three pianists who helped make this album possible. I literally could not have done it without the formidable musical talents of Mei-En Chou, Andreea Muţ, and Scott Holshouser.

While I make no apology for any part of these recordings, the discerning ear may hear an occasional minor slip. Quite frankly, throughout my career as a soloist, I have been less concerned about technical perfection and more focused on what emotion or message I am trying to convey to my audience. The same holds true for this album. My biggest hope is that this album will provide both enjoyment to every listener and inspiration for flutists, young, old, or in-between.

— Linda Wiley

The Poulenc Sonata is a standard in flute literature. It was commissioned by the Coolidge Foundation and written for Jean-Pierre Rampal in 1957.

The first movement mirrors Poulenc’s own personality, alternating between passages of melancholy and joy. The opening figure sounds light and airy, but as the movement progresses, there are brief moments of wistfulness or even sadness. These are fleeting, and the joyous passages return. The movement ends with the opening figure, but as a much-subdued version.

The second movement reinforces the idea of nostalgia tinged with melancholy. But this time Poulenc conveys that emotion with a beautifully lyrical melodic line.

The third movement begins light and frothy, purely French, erasing all traces of sadness. There is a brief return to the sadness of the two prior movements, but once again Poulenc pushes that aside, and the movement ends not just joyously but triumphantly.

— Linda Wiley

This piece was written in 1957 and dedicated to Jean-Pierre Rampal.

The two outer movements are both delightful to hear and challenging to play. In both movements, Feld includes flashes of musical wit and humor, as well as rhythmic references to his Czech heritage.

The first movement is an absolute joy to play, in spite of the technical demands. Feld enhances the fun with a constant roller coaster of dynamics, concluding with an almost-too-cute final ascending phrase.

The middle movement (ABA) is quite profound, owing to the extremely slow tempo in the opening section plus the juxtaposition of percussive piano chords against the haunting line of the flute. The contrasting middle section, rather eerie in character, proceeds to a return of the A theme, which builds to a thunderous climax, with the flute becoming as percussive as the piano.

The transition from the second to the third movement once again displays wit. Feld definitely evokes Czech rhythms in this movement; the use of hemiola is quite prevalent throughout. And once again, at the very last, Feld displays a wit which is hard to miss.

— Linda Wiley

Originally composed for violin and piano in 1886 as a wedding present for Franck’s violinist friend Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe, the work was transcribed for flute by Jean-Pierre Rampal.

There is an easy, rocking simplicity to the first movement, almost evoking a barcarolle. This gentleness is maintained throughout the movement.

That mood is immediately swept away with the second movement. Beginning with a stormy introduction by the piano, the movement is dominated by sturm und drang, with only a slight letup here and there.

The third movement begins with passages that are improvisatory in nature. The closing section of the movement is quite tranquil in nature.

After the heady emotions of the previous three movements, the finale opens with a delightful canon between flute and piano that feels like a breath of fresh air. There are more dramatic sections along the way, leading to a grandiose finish, but throughout the movement, Franck returns to the wonderful tune of the canon.

— Linda Wiley

As the title suggests, this work is based on the folk music of Mexico. The first movement, “Huapango,” is named for a particular style of Mexican folk dance, characterized by a lively tempo and distinctive rhythm patterns. Specifically, the underlying beat constantly shifts between a triple- and a duple-subdivision.

The second movement, “Llorona,” is a bolero, based on the tragic folk tale of La Llorona (The Weeping Woman). The original folk song — which tells the tale of a woman who drowns her children and herself and subsequently appears as a ghost haunting bodies of water — became popular in Mexico around 1940.

The third movement, “Yaqui,” is named for an indigenous tribe in Northern Mexico. This lively movement evokes the Yaqui Deer Dance. Elements of the dance include repetitive rhythms, sounds of rattles and gourds, and a driving tempo. Typically a flute is heard adding swirling flourishes.

— Linda Wiley

While I did not consciously choose these four sonatas with a Rampal connection in mind, I have noticed a link, at least among three of the four. With my own link to the “Rampal Lineage,” I thought this was worth sharing.

First, the Poulenc Sonata was written for and premiered by Rampal in 1957. Second, the Feld Sonata was dedicated to Rampal, also in 1957. Third, the Franck Sonata was transcribed from the original violin by Rampal in 1958.

That leaves only the Gottschalk Sonata. When I asked my friend Art Gottschalk if there were any connection between him or his piece and Rampal, he replied, with his usual wry sense of humor, “Well, I’ve HEARD of Rampal.”

— Linda Wiley