Grażyna Jursza, Malgorzata Kaniowska - Friederich II: Flute Concerto, Sinfonie (2007) CD-Rip

In May 1740, an Austrian ambassador in Berlin wrote about the newly-elected Frederick II (1712-1786): "He is a poet capable of writing hundreds of verses in an hour. He could also be a musician, a philosopher, or a mechanic. But he will not certainly be a good leader or warrior". The future showed that the diplomat's opinion was ironically right and wrong at the same time. The fact attests to the greatly equivocal, complex, and conflicting nature of the "lonely man from Sanssouci". (...) music, apart from literature and philosophy, was positively Frederick II's greatest passion since his early childhood. (...) In its writing, Frederick is a true child of the Rococo style(...) we can perceive in his music a virtual mixture of styles. Besides the Italian cantabile in melody, there is also the French clarity of construction, with certain tendencies to periodicity. At the same time, there is a typical North German treatment of harmony and choice of means of initiating and developing themes that stems from polyphony.(...)"