About the creation

Concertante Music for flute and string orchestra was composed in 1961. It was a significant year for Stutschewsky who celebrated his 70th anniversary in a series of concerts. At the same time, he also donated his private music collection to the Felicja Blumental Music Library in Tel-Aviv, then called 'The Central Music Library in Israel', while emphasizing that it would serve: "As a source of educating and developing younger generations of musicians." This work is the third in a series of works for one or two solo instruments and a string orchestra. It followed the Concertino for Clarinet and Strings (1957) and the Phantasy for Harp and Strings (1959), which received its premiere from Kol Israel Orchestra during the Jubilee concert series. Concertante Music belongs to the third period of Stutschewsky's artistic career that began in the 1950s, following Klezmer Music's influence, and the effect of Israeli folkloristic signifiers that strengthened after he immigrated to Palestine in 1938. Its musical language adheres to modern music, a style he absorbed as a young cellist in Europe during the 1920s, but it is based on traditional harmony and form. The choice of the title 'concertante' and not 'concerto' emphasizes the feeling of agreement and coordination more than contrast and dispute between the flute and the ensemble, though both aspects are reflected. A short introduction in the strings presents some of the melodic patterns that govern the work. What seems, at first, to divide the soloist and the ensemble, turns into a constant dialogue and mutual influence throughout most of the first movement. A short cadence leads directly from the opening Allegro to the Andante, which also moves without a break into the concluding Allegro Ritmico. Variations on similar themes govern all the movements with occasional changes in tempo, dynamics, and texture. The reappearance of one of the lyrical themes from the first movement at the opening of the concluding cadence reinforces the unifying concept of the complete work. Dr. Anat Viks