Devienne joined the military band of the Paris National Guard in 1790, teaching music to children of French soldiers, which later became the Paris Conservatoire.
Performer Biography
Patrick Gallois, the flautist on this album, studied with Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Paris Conservatoire and became principal flute in the Orchestre national de France at age 21.
Composer Biography
Devienne died in a Parisian home for the mentally ill in 1803, with his obituary attributing his 'true madness' to sorrows experienced during the Revolution.
Performer Biography
This recording is dedicated to the memory of Per Flemström, a Swedish flautist who was principal flute of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic, and it was his final recording.
Cultural Impact
Devienne's opera, Les Visitandines (1792), was one of the most successful operas of the Revolutionary period, receiving over 200 performances in Paris between 1792 and 1797.
Compositional Technique
The symphonie concertante, a hybrid genre popular before the French Revolution, appealed to bourgeois audiences with its virtuoso display, big sonorities, and pleasing melodies.
Composer Biography
François Devienne, a prominent wind music composer, was a bassoonist in the Paris Opéra orchestra and studied flute with Félix Rault, to whom he later dedicated his last flute concerto.
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