Since 2003, Melissa has been Principal Baroque Flute and Recorder of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and is a core member of the Australian Haydn Ensemble and the Orchestra of the Antipodes. On her return to Australia, Melissa chose to focus her attention on the area she loves most, early music, collecting and playing historical instruments from early French model Baroque flutes through to mid-nineteenth century flutes. She then completed postgraduate studies at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam in flute, recorder and traverso. Growing up in Auckland, New Zealand, Melissa came to Sydney in 1994 to study Undergraduate flute and recorder at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She plays a variety of instruments, including various models of traverso (side-blown flute) and recorder. Melissa Farrow enjoys a fulfilling career as a period flautist, recorder player, and teacher on the Australian early music scene. Program Notes: Joanna Butler & Hugh Ronzani, 2020Īdditional Program Notes: © Alan Maddox, 2002 The middle Adagio is a delicate and sonorous aria for the flute in B minor, accompanied by pizzicato strings, and is swiftly followed by a sprightly Rondo finale after a short pause. The opening Allegro starts with a bright melody, later borrowed by Ludwig van Beethoven for the first movement for his Duo for clarinet and bassoon of 1792. Thankfully, the Flute Quartet No. 1 is not marred by Mozart’s discontent. As Mozart states above, only two concertos and one quartet of three were completed in full, hence the heavily reduced fee from the original 200 gulden (roughly $5000 AUD today) that Mozart had been offered. Wealthy Dutch amateur flautist Willem Van Britten Dejong had commissioned Mozart to compose three flute concertos and ‘a couple’ of flute quartets. Besides, my mind gets easily dulled, as you know, when I’m supposed to write a lot for an instrument I can’t stand. Of course, I could scribble all day, and scribble as fast as I can, but such a thing goes out into the world, so I want to make sure I won’t have to feel ashamed, especially when my name appears on the page. And then, one isn’t always in the mood to write. I can’t compose, except at night which means I also can’t get up early in the morning. Herr …paid me only 96 gulden since I don’t have more than two concertos and three quartets ready for him…The fact that I could not finish the assignment can easily be explained. While he wrote many marvelous parts for the instrument in his symphonies, concertos, and operas, he is often quoted from a letter to his father saying he could not stand the instrument while explaining away his incapacity to complete an important commission: History records Mozart as having an ambivalent relationship with the flute.
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