Abstract
'The Flute Concerto' was composed for flutist Alexa Still (principal flute, NZSO) in 1993 while Ritchie was composer in residence with the Dunedin Sinfonia. Unlike the Symphony 'Boum,' written in the same year, this concerto is a generally happy and open-sounding work, and reflects aspects of Alexa Still's personality as well as her playing.
The first movement is energetic in style, with a bubbling first theme. This is contrasted by a darker and slower second theme, exploring the lower register of the flute. The music accelerates back to the main theme before heading into a percussive middle section. The flute then presents a lyrical idea which is related to earlier themes, and this leads to a cadenza. A brief recapitulation drives the music to a forceful ending.
The slow second movement is lyrical and improvisational in style, with two cadenzas at the start of the movement. The first of these was scored for bass clarinet, but becomes a flute solo in this version for piano and flute. In between these cadenzas a warm and gentle theme appears. However, it soon fades into anxious repeated chords on the piano while the flute plays nervous, flickering gestures. As the tension dissolves the piano introduces a laconic theme, interspersed with little cadenzas on the flute. The music builds to a climax where the warm, gentle theme returns in a contrapuntal version, and again fades into the anxious piano chords. A brief and mysterious coda contains references back to the opening cadenza, and the piece ends unresolved.
The third movement is like a sequence of dances with different characters, bound together by a buffeting crotchet rhythm. After a flourish from the piano, the flute introduces a sprightly theme, followed by a quirky, subsidiary idea. The buffeting rhythm from the start is transformed into a pop-styled ostinato pattern, and the flute plays a lyrical melody above it. This theme was inspired by the composer attending a performance by 'The Muttonbirds,' a well-known NZ rock group. The quirky theme returns in a more subdued setting, the music slows, and unexpectedly becomes a dreamy and child-like waltz. This distraction is swept away by a loud chord, and the main theme returns with renewed purpose, leading to an exciting conclusion in which all the elements of the movement are combined.