1. Pan et les Bergers
Whilst originally composed for flute and orchestra, Jules Mouquet’s La Flûte de Pan has today become a staple of the flute and piano repertoire. Its three movements are each titled to evoke imagery of the Greek god Pan as he plays his pastoral flute among shepherds, birds and nymphs. Accompanying the three movements are printed short excerpts of lyric poetry from Greek antiquity.
Here from Alcaeus:
O Pan qui habites la montagne, chante nous de tes douces lèvres une chanson, chante nous la en t’accompagnant du roseau pastoral.
O Pan, you who live in the mountains, sing us a song with your sweet lips, sing to us and play the while on the pastoral reed.
Bucolic scenes were particularly popular with city audiences around the turn of the century in France. As city life was fast-paced, busy and inevitably exhausting, they longed for the peace which pastoral scenery could evoke. The first movement presents a charming naivety in its sweeping syncopated theme which is driven forward by figurative, swirling semiquaver passages, perhaps recalling the wind flowing over the mountains.
Flute: Linda Speulman
Piano: Ella Kamerich
