Rhapsody for Аlto Flute and Orchestra

Debussy wrote two rhapsodies. The first one, dd.1910, is for clarinet and piano, a competition piece for the traditional competitive examinations for various instruments at the Paris Conservatoire at the end of the school year. And the Second, actually begun before the first one, is for saxophone and orchestra. Debussy's Rhapsody for Alto Flute and Orchestra is one of the most successful versions of the Second Rhapsody. The story of this work is connected with the American Elise Hall. When her hearing unexpectedly deteriorated, on the advice of her husband, the surgeon Richard Hall, she began to learn to play the saxophone to improve her condition by blowing air into the instrument. Why the saxophone? In Santa Barbara where they lived they could find no other brass instrument. When Dr. Hall died in 1898, Elise decided to devote herself to music. And mainly to the popularization of the saxophone. She began to take lessons with the first oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Georges Longy. Together they founded the Boston Amateur Orchestra Club. At each concert of the club they conceived to play one work for saxophone. With her good financial means, she became the initiator for commissioning works that substantially filled the repertoire for the instrument in the early decades of the 20^th century. Among the most famous of these was Debussy's Second Rhapsody. In a letter to Message dated 8 June 1903, the composer wrote: "An American lady has commissioned me a piece for saxophone and orchestra. I do not know how agreeable it is to you, as far as I am concerned, I have forgotten its peculiar sound... And here in desperation I am inventing some sound combinations best suited to this colourless instrument. It gives me no great pleasure, the saxophone is a reedy animal with behaviors and habits with which I am hardly familiar. Its sound reminds me of the romantic sweetness of the clarinet's timbre. I make it murmur melancholy phrases... All this will be called Arabic Rhapsody." In the meantime, however, as he began working on the symphonic triptych The Sea, his personal life takes a turn. Elise Hall was patiently awaiting her piece, which she had dully financed - it is important to her that Debussy should write it after all. The further fate of the Rhapsody is shrouded in mist. For the next 13 years there is no record of the composer returning to the score of the work. The manuscript remained in his possession until his death on 25 March 1918. A month later his second wife Emma handed over to Roger Ducasse (a close friend of Debussy's) the manuscript entitled Sketches of a Moorish Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra. He completed the work according to the author's detailed prescriptions, remaining faithful to his intentions. He added several other instruments to the orchestration. He prepared the score for printing along with a facsimile of the manuscript. The official premiere took place on 14 May 1919 at the Gaveau Hall in Paris under the final title Rhapsody for saxophone and orchestra. It was performed by the orchestra of the National Musical Society, Pierre Meyer as soloist, Andre Caplet as conductor. The original manuscript of the Rhapsody was sent to Elise Hall, who was never able to perform or hear it because she was now completely deaf. This melancholy beautiful piece, which displays the instrument soloing magnificently without being a slave to virtuosity for its own sake, is close to the poetic mood of Debussy's later works.