Frederick the Great
musical matters was considered final, no new player or singer being ever engaged without his approval. His duties consisted in daily playing flute duets with the King and writing flute concertos for the evening concerts at the palace of Sans Souci.[1] Burney, who was present at one of these concerts, which began at eight and lasted an hour, thus describes it:—The concert-room contained pianos by Silbermann and a tortoise-shell desk for his Majesty's use, most richly and elegantly inlaid with silver; also books of difficult flute passages—"solfeggi," or preludes: some of these books still exist at Potsdam. Before the concert began Burney could hear Frederick in an adjoining room practising over stiff passages before calling in the band. The programme on the evening in question consisted of three long and difficult concertos for the flute, accompanied by the band. The King (who generally played three, and occasionally five, concertos in a single evening) "played the solo flute parts with great precision, his embouchure was clear and even,
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- ↑ There is a fine picture by Menzel in the Berlin National Gallery of one of the concerts, with Frederick standing at his desk playing the solo part, and Carl P. E. Bach at the pianoforte. Amongst other notable pictures in which the flute figures prominently are Van Ostade's Le Trio (Musée de Bruxelles), Ferret's Musicien Annamite (Musée du Luxembourg), and Watteau's L'Accord Parfait (in all of which the flute-player is left-handed); David's Le Compositeur de Vienne (Musée Moderne de Bruxelles), Weber's Loisirs de Monsigneur (Paris Salon, 1908), Rosselli's La Triomphe de David (Louvre), Mazzani's A Difficult Passage, and Millais' An Idyll (fife); also in pictures in Punch for Jan. 8th, 1887; Dec. 6th, 1888; Jan. 4th, 1905; and May 2nd, 1906.
