Description

ELI HUDSON (WORSLEY, LANCASHIRE 1877 – LONDON 1919)

 

 

 

Born at Worseley, near Manchester, Hudson started playing the piccolo at an early age and toured with his sister Winifred (Elgar) and his mother, playing as a trio mainly in music halls. He studied the flute under W. L. Barrett and A. P. Vivian at the Royal College of Music, London, learning on a 1867 system flute which he continued to use throughout his career. He was appointed principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra and taught at the Royal Military School, Kneller Hall. In 1905 he was co-founder of the New Symphony Orchestra, the first orchestra to be contracted with a gramophone company. He made many flute and piccolo solo recordings and was well known for his dexterity and powerful tone.

 

 

GEORGE ACKROYD (1880-1960)

 

 

 

A graduate of the Royal College of Music, was principal flutist with the Royal Opera, Covent Gardens, before and after World War II. During that conflict he was Pipe Major of the Transvaal Scottish Regiment, which fought in the major battles of the North African campaign, including el Alamein. The bagpipers in a Scottish regiment form a machine gun crew during a battle. The King Edward VII School, a prestigious prep school in Johannesburg, hosts an international bagpipe competition, named in honor of Ackroyd.

 

 

 

GEORGES BARRÈRE (BORDEAUX, OCTOBER 31, 1876 – NEW YORK, JUNE 14, 1944)

 

 

 

 

He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Henry Altès and Paul Taffanel. As a very young man in 1894 he played the solo in the first performance of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. In 1905 he emigrated to the USA where he was first flute in the New York Symphony Orchestra, which later merged with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Barrère taught at the Institute of Musical Art, which became the Juilliard School. He taught an entire generation of great American flute players including William Kincaid, Samuel Baron, Frances Blaisdell, Arthur Lora and Bernard Goldberg. Barrère gave the first performances of many works that are now part of the standard repertoire of the flute, including Edgard Varèse’s Density 21.5, written to be performed on Barrère’s newly-acquired platinum flute. Barrère founded the New York Flute Club in 1920.

 

 

JACQUES VAN LIER (1881-1934)

 

 

 

He was the principal flautist with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra from 1907 to his death in 1934.

 

 

 

PIERRE DESCHAMPS (1874-1922)

 

 

He was the principal flautist Lamoureux Orchestra.

 

 

 

EDWARD DE JONG (MARCH 1ST 1837 AT DEVENTER, HOLLAND 1837– NOVEMBER 20TH, SULBY, ISLE OF MAN 1920)

 

 

 

 

He is thought to be the oldest flute player to have made a recording. It is remarkable that de Jong’s first teachers may have been born in the 18th century. Edward de Jong was born in Holland and had established himself in England by the time he was 20 years old. He became first flute in the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester when it was founded in 1858. In the same year, Rudall, Rose & Carte advertised in The Times that de Jong was one of the distinguished players who used one of their modern cylindrical flutes.It would seem that it was Edward de Jong who encouraged his young compatriot, Albert Fransella, to move to England to play in an orchestra de Jong was conducting at the spa in Buxton, Derbyshire.

 

 

 

ALFRED FRANSELLA (1865 AMSTERDAM, NOORD-HOLLAND, NEDERLAND – 1935 LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM)

 

 

 

 

He studied with famous flautist Jacques de Jong. He appeared at the very first Henry Wood Prom Concert on 10th August 1895 playing Godard’s Waltz (Suite) and first recorded in 1898 for the Gramophone Company. He played in the Crystal Palace Orchestra 1855-1901, the Queen’s Hall Orchestra 1895-1919, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 1900-1925 and made tours with Melba and Tetrazzini. He also held principal positions in the Scottish Orchestra and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. As flute professor at Guildhall and Trinity College he was a very successful and influential teacher.

 

 

DARIUS LYONS (1878-1911)

 

 

 

He was born in Minnesota. He played with, among others, Victor Herbert’s orchestra and the Sousa band.

 

 

 

FRANK BADOLLET (1870-?)

 

 

 

He was the principal flautist of the United States Marine Band.

 

 

 

 

JOHN AMADIO (CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND NOVEMBER 15, 1883 – SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA APRIL 4, 1964)

 

 

 

 

Amadio was born in Christchurch, New Zealand to Samuel Biddle Taylor and Eliza Taylor, and was given the birth name John Bell Taylor. When the boy was one year old, his father died and Eliza took the family to Wellington where, in 1890 at the age of 39, she married a 22-year-old carpenter and amateur flute player, Henry Antonio Amadio. John assumed his stepfather’s surname and began learning the flute, showing early promise. He performed with the Wellington Orchestral Society at the age of 11 and again at age 12 as a soloist in a flute concerto, with Alfred Hill conducting. In 1900 the family moved to Sydney, Australia, and then to Melbourne, where in 1901 the young Amadio gained his first position as a professional flute player. Amadio married a pianist, Leonora Soames Roberts, in 1916; but they separated in 1918 and divorced in 1925. Shortly after, he married the Australian operatic soprano, Florence Austral. By 1940, Amadio and Austral had separated and during the war years he mostly performed in London orchestras and for the Armed Forces in support of the war effort. In 1947, he returned to Australia, toured with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, joined the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and then the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from 1949 and stayed in the country for the rest of his life. From 1959 Amadio lived in Melbourne in semi-retirement to care for an invalid sister, Evelyn Gunderson. He died in Melbourne in 1964 at the age of 80, a few moments after finishing a performance (with Hector Crawford conducting) of Mozart’s D major flute concerto at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Amadio’s first professional job as principal flute was with J. C. Williamson’s Italian Opera Company. There, in 1902 he accompanied the French-American operatic soprano Clementine de Vere Sapio, who presented him with the ruby ring from her finger and a bouquet of flowers after their performance of the “Mad Scene” from Lucia di Lamermoor. Later he was principal flute in Nellie Melba’s opera orchestra when she toured Australia in 1911. From 1903 to 1912 he played in the Marshall Hall orchestra, and from 1909 to 1920 taught flute at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Among his students were the later Australian virtuosi, Victor McMahon, Leslie Barklamb, and John’s own nephew Neville Amadio, who was principal flute with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for 50 years. In 1919, Amadio began his international career accompanying Luisa Tetrazzini and performing with The Hallé Orchestra, where Henry Wood described Amadio’s playing as “the finest tone I have ever heard”. From then until 1947, Amadio was based in London, touring with his second wife, Florence Austral, and accompanying well-known operatic sopranos of the day such as Emma Calve, Frieda Hempel, Lily Pons and Amelita Galli-Curci. In 1925, Amadio and Austral visited the United States for the first time, and from then until 1936 they spent six months of every year touring there, performing in many cities including Washington DC, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, San Francisco and New York City. Amadio played a number of Radcliff system flutes, including some in different keys. These included a bass flute, a low-pitched flute d’amour in B-flat, and an alto flute in G. He was an early advocate of metal flutes and some of his flutes are in the possession of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. John Amadio and his contemporary, John Lemmone capitalised on the taste of their time for florid operatic arias accompanied by flute obbligatos (in the contradictory sense that they were decorative and played ad lib).

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1. Eli Hudson (1877-1919) Variations sur un air allemande, Op. 22 (Theobald Boehm)
2. Eli Hudson (1877-1919) Whistling polka (Kerker)
3. Eli Hudson (1877-1919) Le Carnaval de Venise Variations
4. Eli Hudson (1877-1919) Danse des Satyrs (Thiere)
5. Eli Hudson (1877-1919) The Wrenn
6. George Ackroyd (1880-1960) Mendelssohn’s immortal Spring Song with Albert Sammons (violin)
7. Georges Barrère (1876-1944) Canzonetta Op. 6 (d’Ambrosio)
8. Georges Barrère (1876-1944) Sonata No.2 Eb maj – 1st mvt – Allegro moderato (Bach)
9. Georges Barrère (1876-1944) Sonata No.2 Eb maj – 2nd mvt – Siciliano; 3rd mvt – Allegro (Bach)
10. Jacques van Lier (1881-1934) Flute solo from Gluck’s opera Alceste
11. Pierre Deschamps (1874-1922) Menuet from Bizet’s L’Arlesienne suite No. 2
12. Edward de Jong (1837-1920) Auld Robin Gray
13. Edward de Jong (1837-1920) The Swannee River
14. Albert Fransella (1865-1935) The Wren (Domare)
15. Albert Fransella (1865-1935) Waltz-Suite de Zimorceaux (Godard)
16. Albert Fransella (1865-1935) Weel May The Keel Row (R. Carte)
17. Darius Lyons (1878-1911) The gem polka (X John S. Co)
18. Darius Lyons (1878-1911) Le carnaval Russe (Ciardi)
19. Darius Lyons (1878-1911) The nightingale (Popp)
20. Darius Lyons (1878-1911) La fleurance
21. Darius Lyons (1878-1911) Romanza Etude caprice
22. Frank Badollet (1870-?) Chopin’s waltz
23. John Lemmoné (1861-1949) Distant voices (Lemmoné)
24. John Lemmoné (1861-1949) The nightingale (Donjon) (p. Maurice Lafarge)
25. John Lemmoné (1861-1949) The spinning wheel (Spindler)