Tulou Il Trovatore Fantaisie

Anne Pustlauk, flute.
Toby Sermeus, piano.

2022

The Fantasy on a Theme from Il Trovatore op. 105 by Jean-Louis Tulou served as a concours work for the flute class at the Paris Conservatoire in 1856. The opera Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre-Italien in December 1854. It was an immediate success and was programmed many times in the following years. Tulou dedicated his fantasy to the British Sir Warwick Hele Tomkin. In 1856, two students took part in the concours: Jean-Baptiste-Marie (also Johannès) Donjon and Marie-Joseph Duvergès (also Duverger). Donjon, who won a first prize, was a friend of Taffanel and played with him in the Opéra orchestra. Besides the Opéra, Donjon played a lot of chamber music. He founded the Quintettes harmoniques together with colleagues, an association that promoted chamber music with wind instruments, and played his own compositions for piccolo in a concert series at the Zoological Gardens in Paris. Duvergès got a first accessit in 1856, but had to interrupt his studies because he had to take up a post for piccolo in a regiment. However, Duvergès was given the opportunity to join the Musique des Guides de la Garde Impériale, which not only played for the Emperor Napoleon III but also gave public concerts for the people. Later, after the disbandment of the Garde Impériale, Duvergès performed in the concerts des Champs-Elysées. Like Donjon, he composed light music for the flute and piccolo, and he is the author of a method for the Boehm flute.
The twelve-keyed flute in this video is completely atypical of French instruments of the time. It has, for example, a metal-lined headjoint made of ivory, many keys and tone holes with metal decorations. Although it bears the French stamp "Truchot & Cie / Paris", it was not made in France. It was probably imported from Austria or Italy and sold by a dealer named Truchot & Cie in Paris. The sound and playing style of this flute are of course atypical for France and follow the ideal of its place of manufacture. For example, fingerings that are typical of French flutes cannot be applied to this flute. The buyer had to learn a different method.
The piano is a 1843 Pleyel.