Armand Lonque

Sonate op. 21

Armand Lonque came from a musical family, with both a father and a older brother being composers and professional musicians. His studies at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent led to a varied teaching career throughout much of central Flanders. His compositions range from solo pieces for piano, a variety of choral works, and repertoire pieces for most instruments. This sonata for flute and piano is dedicated to Francis Stoefs (flute professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels) and was awarded the Emile Mathieu prize for composition in 1939. The Sonata for Flute and Piano itself is an attractive work, pairing a sense of lush Faure with a stranger impressionism. A thick, gorgeously expressive first movement (with a melody that touches on Gieseking) gives way to a delicate middle movement with a quietly evolving piano ostinato underneath the unsettlingly beautiful flute. The playful, meaty finale full of sly lines brings the Sonata to a virtuosic close.