Fantaisie pastorale hongroise Op.26 (c 1850?)

Molto andante – Andantino moderato – Allegro

The Dopplers – Franz and his rather less prolific younger brother Karl – are little known outside the flute world, internationally celebrated as both flautists and composers though they were in their day. When the name appears outside the flute context it is usually in connection with Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, the orchestral versions of which the composer entrusted to Franz, insisting that “Doppler should not be omitted from the title page, for he has done the work marvellously.” Liszt’s faith in him was no doubt founded on the fact that, although he and his brother were born and brought up in Poland, Franz had developed such an interest in the Hungarian-gypsy idiom in the years they were working in Budapest that he became more expert in it than the Hungarians themselves.

While the most thorough expression of Franz Doppler’s attachment to the Hungarian idiom is probably to be found in the operas on national themes he wrote in Budapest, the all’ongarese element is a consistent feature of the flute pieces he and his brother assembled for their concert tours. Obviously, it is particularly prominent in the Fantaise pastorale hongroise, the most interesting quality of which is the apparently effortless integration of virtuoso flute figuration with the characteristically decorative line of the Hungarian-gypsy style. Not quite the csárdás it apparently sets out to be in the melancholy Molto andante introduction, it includes an elegant Andantino moderato – approached by an exotically coloured passage of flute harmonics – before launching into the vigorous dance tunes of the closing Allegro.