Blavet, M :: Variations on a Theme by Corelli

Variations on a Theme by Corelli

Blavet, M

International Music Company presents Michel Blavet's 'Varations on a Theme by Corelli' for two flutes arranged and edited by Ransom Wilson.

Michel Blavet was a French composer born in Besancon March 13, 1700 and died in Paris October 28, 1768. Although he was self-taught [and] left-handed, Blavet played several instruments, became a bassoonist, and was brilliant and the most famous flute virtuoso of the first half of the eighteenth century century. He moved to Paris in 1723, where he was employed by Count Levis. In 1726, he entered the service of the Comte de Carignan for whom he wrote his first composition. The same year he became friendly with the virtuoso flautist Johann Joachim Quantz, a student of Peter Gabriel Buffardin. His first concertos and sonatas obtained an immense success at the Concert Spiritual. Around 1732 he became superintendent of the music of Count of Clermont, Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons, in whose service he remained 30 years. In 1740, he became a flutist with the Paris Opera. After meeting with Georg Philip Telemann in 1746 in Paris, he discovered his quartets with the training he had created, a quartet with flute, violin, viola or cello, and basso continuo. From 1752, he wrote several operas for young Count of Clermont and was the author of the first French comic opera: The Jealous corrected. He was one of the first French to write concerti, but only his Concerto in four parts has come down to us. Blavet's sonatas formed peaks of the repertoire of the flute. Blavet taught and published several books on education, including three pieces and Collections of a book on the flute, offering six sonatas for two flutes.

- Robert Martin, 2008