Renée Krimsier - Mozart: Flute Concertos (1997)

Most discussions of Mozart’s flute music begin with his supposed dislike of the flute. For instance, his well-known statement in a letter to his father, “You know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear” seems inauspicious. There is a strong possibility, however, Mozart did indeed like the flute and made this statement for defensive reasons. He hadn’t finished all the concerti and other works for flute promised to De Jean, the wealthy Dutch amateur who had commissioned the music from him, (and in fact, one of the concerti he had written was a practically literal transcription of a concerto for oboe he had written in Salzburg and which had been heard many times in Mannheim that month!).