Wanderlust
Marko Zupan, flute
Minka Popovic, piano
 
Rudolf Tillmetz (1847-1915) Es will Abend werden, Op. 41
Kaspar Kummer (1795-1870) Le Carnaval de Venise, Op.157
Albert Franz Doppler (1821-1883) Airs Valaques, Op.10
Ferdinand Büchner (1823-1906) Espagnole, Op.62 
Ernst Wilhelm Heinemeyer (1827-1869) Souvenir de la Russie, Op.3 
Wilhelm Popp (1828-1903) La reine des Alpes, Op.250, nr.3
Wilhelm Popp (1828-1903) Serbisches Märchen, Op.469, nr.4
Adolf Terschak (1832-1901) "Columbus" Rapsodie Americaine, Op.132
Rudolf Tillmetz (1847-1915) Ungarische Phantasie, Op.25
Theobald Böhm (1794-1881) Gute Nacht (from Schubert´s Winterreise)
 
“Wanderlust”, a strong impulse or longing to travel, was the much loved term of the German Romantic Époque. The painter Caspar David Friedrich, poets and writers such as Heinrich Heine, Wilhelm Müller and Joseph Victor von Scheffel, composers Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and countless other artists tried to express their innermost feeling of Wanderlust through different aspects of their art. The flutists of the period joined them in this endeavour.
After the flutistically rich Baroque and Classical period, the romantic XIX. Century left a gap in the flute repertoire. With rare exceptions (Schubert, Reinecke, Widor et al.), the major composers did not focus their genius on writing for one of today`s most popular instruments. Eventually the XX. century and Impressionism brought a revival. The flute grew popular as a solo instrument, a trend which continues strongly in the XXI. century. This lack of romantic repertoire was probably the reason that flutists of the period were forced to take matters into their own hands - and start composing. Most of them were thoroughly trained in the art of music, inspired by virtuosos such as Paganini, Chopin and Liszt, and they started to create a specific style of salon music. In fact the style was so specific, it became a cliché for the flutist of the time to be represented as playing fast acrobatic passages and sentimental melodies. That may have been the case at the time, nonetheless this instrumentally progressive composing enriched and developed the technical aspects of flute playing. It prompted inventors like Theobald Boehm to invent new systems of mechanics for the flute so that it challenged the established virtuoso instruments such as violin and piano. Without these pioneers of flute virtuosity, there would probably have been no renaissance of the instrument later on. At the same time this is "feel good" music which is easy to listen to and this CD is a homage to all the colleagues who tried to make their art and their living with it.