Flute Quartets by Friedrich Fesca

German violinist and composer Friedrich Ernst Fesca was born when Mozart was 33 years old, and Beethoven was 19.  Fesca is little-known today in part because he was overshadowed by both these composers.  And when someone like Louis Spohr came along, a composer of some note who followed Fesca’s career with approval, the latter was pretty much forgotten.

When his music is heard today, it’s more often his symphonies than anything else.  In 2008, Classical WETA Critic-At-Large Jens Laursen wrote that cpo’s release of Fesca symphonies was “…cause for unmitigated delight.”  In this recent release we have a chance to hear some of the chamber music Fesca wrote at the request of his publisher, Simrock, who believed that flute quartets would sell very well.  Fesca wrote four of them, three of which are on this CD.

Unlike many chamber works, here the composer didn’t try to give each part equal attention (as he did in his string quartets) but wrote tiny flute concertos.  The flute is accompanied by, rather than sharing musical dialogue with, the three string players.  These performances by four members of the Linos Ensemble bring to mind the congenial household music-making that was intended with these quartets.