Mozart Stories Emmanuel Pahud & Eric Le Sage

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Flute Sonata in B-Flat Major, K. 378:
• 1Mozart: Flute Sonata in B-Flat Major, K. 378: I. Allegro moderato (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)08:54
• 2Mozart: Flute Sonata in B-Flat Major, K. 378: II. Andantino sostenuto e cantabile (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)05:48
• 3Mozart: Flute Sonata in B-Flat Major, K. 378: III. Rondo. Allegro (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)04:15
• Flute Sonata in G Major, K. 379:
• 4Mozart: Flute Sonata in G Major, K. 379: I. Adagio - Allegro (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)11:42
• 5Mozart: Flute Sonata in G Major, K. 379: II. (a) Andantino cantabile. Theme (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)01:04
• 6Mozart: Flute Sonata in G Major, K. 379: II. (b) Andantino cantabile. Variation I (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)01:07
• 7Mozart: Flute Sonata in G Major, K. 379: II. (c) Andantino cantabile. Variation II (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)01:08
• 8Mozart: Flute Sonata in G Major, K. 379: II. (d) Andantino cantabile. Variation III (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)01:05
• 9Mozart: Flute Sonata in G Major, K. 379: II. (e) Andantino cantabile. Variation IV (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)01:08
• 10Mozart: Flute Sonata in G Major, K. 379: II. (f) Andantino cantabile. Variation V (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)04:27
• Flute Sonata in E Minor, K. 304:
• 11Mozart: Flute Sonata in E Minor, K. 304: I. Allegro (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)07:02
• 12Mozart: Flute Sonata in E Minor, K. 304: II. Tempo di menuetto (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)05:43
• Flute Sonata in C Major, K. 296:
• 13Mozart: Flute Sonata in C Major, K. 296: I. Allegro vivace (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)09:11
• 14Mozart: Flute Sonata in C Major, K. 296: II. Andante sostenuto (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)05:54
• 15Mozart: Flute Sonata in C Major, K. 296: III. Rondo. Allegro (Transcr. of Violin Sonata)04:24
• Total Runtime01:12:52

Info for Mozart Stories

It all started with Mozart. In fact, the day I was born - like Wolfgang Amadeus - on 27 January. When I was four years old, we were living in Rome at the time, I heard this melody in the stairwell that I couldn't get out of my head and therefore kept whistling to myself: it was from Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 1. I asked our neighbour, whose flat the music was coming from, to teach it to me. That was my first encounter with the flute, with classical music in general - and with Mozart. He is my good star in music. When I play his compositions today, I feel a connection between body and soul when I breathe in and out. These emotions that arise through the breath while playing - for me, only Mozart can do that, it's unique. He treats instruments like the human voice. His music combines structure and freedom.

The fact that I have now recorded these four Mozart violin sonatas on the flute is no coincidence. My portfolio at Warner Classics is a kaleidoscope of different musical works that can be played on the flute. We started in 1997 with Mozart's flute concertos, with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. I had just turned 27 and had learnt over time that Mozart wrote many violin sonatas on his travels from Salzburg to Mannheim, Paris and Vienna, in addition to his operas, symphonies, flute concertos and quartets. Six of these were published for the flute during his lifetime, in a slightly modified version. Personally, I always prefer to stay as close as possible to the original - the modifications are too far removed from Mozart's handwriting for me. And that works very well, as Mozart wrote the sonatas at a time when he was also composing flute works. Flute and violin are therefore very close to each other, so I was able to adapt rather than transpose the four sonatas on this album. Together with my faithful piano partner Eric Le Sage, I have occasionally included parts of the sonatas in the programme at festivals or concerts. And so the selection of the four sonatas in B flat major, G major, E minor and C major crystallised. The time was ripe to bring them together on one album. In dialogue with the piano, they are wonderful to play on the flute.

All of the pieces have very individual characters due to their different keys alone. The B flat major sonata, for example, is full of wonderfully long phrases and endless melodies, the voices alternate and communicate with each other. Mozart wrote the Sonata in E minor in Paris on the night his mother was dying. It is full of sadness, but also anger. And then there is the C major sonata: champagne bubbles and fireworks, just as Mozart experienced in Paris. The G major Sonata, on the other hand, was written a little later in Vienna and resonates with a feeling of perfection.

What Mozart experienced and wrote down in his works is what we musicians want to revive today. So what we feel when we listen to this music is lived time. Mozart's time. And I hope that with this album I succeed in sharing my very personal and deep feelings for this music and the composer with the listeners.

Emmanuel Pahud, flute
Eric Le Sage, piano

Emmanuel Pahu
French and Swiss flautist Emmanuel Pahud began studying music at the age of six. He graduated in 1990 with the 1er Prix from the Paris Conservatoire, and went on studying with Aurèle Nicolet. He won 1st Prize at the Duino, Kobe and Geneva Competitions, and at age 22 Emmanuel joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as Principal Flute under Claudio Abbado, a position which he still holds today. In addition, he enjoys an extensive international career as soloist and chamber musician.

Emmanuel appears regularly at prominent concert series, festivals and orchestras worldwide, and has collaborated as a soloist with leading conductors such as Abbado, Antonini, Barenboim, Boulez, Fischer, Gergiev, Gardiner, Harding, Järvi, Maazel, Nézét-Séguin, Orozco-Estrada, Perlman, Pinnock, Rattle, Rostropovich, Zinman. Emmanuel is a dedicated chamber musician and regularly gives recitals with pianists Eric Le Sage, Alessio Bax, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, Stephen Kovacevich, as well as jazzing with Jacky Terrasson. In 1993, Emmanuel founded the Summer Music Festival in Salon de Provence together with Eric Le Sage and Paul Meyer, which is still a unique chamber music festival today. He also continues chamber music performances and recordings with “Les Vents Français”, one of the premiere wind quintets featuring François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatkovic. He is committed to expanding the flute repertoire and commissions new flute works every year to composers such as Elliott Carter, Marc-André Dalbavie, Thierry Escaich, Toshio Hosokawa, Michaël Jarrell, Philippe Manoury, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Rivet, Eric Montalbetti and Luca Francesconi . Since 1996, Emmanuel has recorded 40 albums exclusively for EMI / Warner Classics, which all have received unanimous critical acclaim and awards, resulting in one of the most significant contributions to recorded flte music. Emmanuel was honoured to receive the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to music, and is HonRAM of the Royal Academy of Music. He also is an Ambassador for Unicef.

Éric Le Sage
is established as the representative of the French piano school, regularly boasted for his very subtle sound, his real sense of structure and poetic phrasing. Already when he was 20 years old, the Financial Times had described him as “an extremely cultivated disciple of the great French tradition of Schumann piano”. In 2010, die Zeit, praised his “ideal French piano aesthetics and clarity”

Eric is invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras at the highest level such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra, Berlin’s Konzerthaus Orchester, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Bremer Philharmoniker, Dresden Philharmonie, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Münchner Kammer Orchester, Dresdner Philharmonie, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with conductors like Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Pablo Gonzalez, Fabien Gabel, Sir Jeffrey Tate, François Leleux, Alexander Liebreich, Kazuki Yamada, Alondra de la Parra, Lionel Bringuier, François Leleux, Michael Stern, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Sir Simon Rattle and Yannick Nézet-Seguin.

Eric has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in major venues across the world such as Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, Paris Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Radio France, Cologne Philharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, Dresden Philharmonie, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Salzburg Mozarteum, Ludwigsburg Festival, Prague’s Rudolfinium, Taipei National Concert Hall, Konzerthaus Vienna, Dublin’s celebrity series, Edinburgh International Festival, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, la Roque d’Anthéron Festival, Potsdam Sanssouci, Brussels’ Bozar, Berlin’s Boulezsaal, Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin Philharmonie.

In 2010 Eric Le Sage released Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano for the composer’s 200th anniversary. He has been invited to perform in this context in major venues around the world. These recordings for the French label Alpha (Outhere) were awarded in the summer 2010 the very prestigious Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Reviewers from the world over have written elated comments about what is already cited as a reference in the history of Schumann recordings. Following this successful project, Eric Le Sage recorded later a bundle of 5 CDs dedicated to Gabriel Fauré’s complete works for chamber music with piano, all covered with awards.

In 2018 he started recording Brahms ’complete chamber music for B Records. The cycle’s 9 th volume was released in May 2021 In 2019 he released Fauré’s Nocturnes on Alpha, as well as Schumann’s Dichterliebe with tenor Julian Pregardien. Both albums won international critical acclaim.

In 2020 and 2021 Eric also released two chamber music albums on Alpha: Vienne 1900 featuring works by Schoenberg, Mahler, Zemlinsky, and Berg, and Nino Rota with Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Daishin Kashimoto, Aurélien Pascal and more.

A true chamber music lover, Eric regularly plays with friends like Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Quatuor Ebène, François Leleux, les Vents Français, François Salque, Lise Berthaud, Daishin Kashimoto, Olivier Latry and many other musicians.

Most of Eric Le Sage’s recordings on RCA-BMG, Naïve, EMI and now Alpha were highly acclaimed and awarded the most sought after awards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Choc de l’Année Classica, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique.

Born in Aix en Provence, Eric Le Sage was the winner of major international competitions such as Porto in 1985 and the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau, in 1989. He was also a prize-winner at Leeds International competition the same year, which allowed him to perform under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.

Booklet for Mozart Stories