Emmanuel Pahud - Mozart Stories

"Mozart is the reason I became a musician," reveals Emmanuel Pahud. At four years old, the Swiss star flutist fell in love with a Mozart flute concerto that he heard a neighbor playing - and he wanted to be able to play it himself. Mozart's works have since become indispensable to the winner of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2024, and his fascination has only grown over the years. "When I play his compositions today," Pahud confesses, "I feel a connection between body and soul as I breathe in and out. These emotions that arise from breathing while playing - for me only Mozart can do that, it is unique. He treats instruments as the human voice." Because Mozart's flute concertos are however limited, the violin sonatas of the composer have been transcribed and a selection of them can now be found on Emmanuel Pahud's album "Mozart Stories". Transcriptions of his violin sonatas for the flute were already published during the lifetime of the composer. In his own transcription, Emmanuel Pahud ensures that Mozart's handwriting is preserved. The flutist has often included these sonatas in his programs when performing with his long-time piano partner Éric Le Sage. For this album, Pahud has chosen works that illustrate the spectrum of Mozart's expressive possibilities: While the Sonata in E minor was composed in the night that Mozart's mother was dying and the composition contains rage and grief, the Sonata in C major speaks of pure champagne bliss. And in the sonata in G there is even a sense of perfection.