Tulou 9e Grand Solo op. 91

Anne Pustlauk, flute.
Toby Sermeus, piano.

2022

Jean Louis Tulou composed the 9th Grand Solo in E flat major for the 1843 concours of the Paris Conservatoire. The 9th Solo is one of the longest works written for the concours and one of the few (5 of 20) written in a flat key. As the simple system flute is based on the D major scale, a tonality becomes more difficult the more it moves away from it. In this Solo, Tulou adds a passage in C sharp major which is even further away from D major than E flat major. Thus, the three students Gustave Lemou, François-Émile Lascoretz and Gustave Bruyant who took part at the 1843 concours had to work hard. Only two of them got a price. Lemou was only 14 years old, he won a second price. I play his flute in the 10th Grand Solo. Lascoretz got an accessit. After his studies he returned to his hometown Troyes where he became quite an important figure in the city's music scene. Bruyant didn't win a price, after the concours he changed the instrument and became a professional oboe player.
The five-keyed flute played in this video was made around 1840 in the workshop of Jean Baptiste Tabard in Lyon. It is a quite robust instrument and was possibly made for the military music.
The piano is a 1843 Pleyel.