Little Concerto for Piccolo and Chamber String Ensemble

Boris Papandopulo (1906 – 1991) is one of the most distinctive Croatian musicians of the 20th century. Papandopulo also worked as music writer, journalist, reviewer, pianist and piano accompanist; however, he achieved the peaks of his career in music as a composer. His composing oeuvre is imposing – Papandopulo composed almost 500 opuses: with great success he created instrumental (orchestral, concertante, chamber and solo), vocal and instrumental (for solo voice and choir), music-stage and film music. In all these kinds and genres he left a string of anthology-piece compositions of great artistic value. The story behind the Little Concerto for Piccolo and Chamber String Ensemble is almost anecdotal: On one of their travels, Tinka Muradori, a young virtuoso flutist at the time, overheard the “obviously gleeful” Papandopulo boasting that there was no instrument for which he hadn’t composed a concert piece. She mustered the courage to contradict the esteemed maestro and tell him he was wrong, pointing out that he never composed a piccolo concerto! Benevolent and humorous Papandopulo was stunned, and it was just several months later, in late October 1977, that he invited the young flutist to try playing his already completed Little Concerto for Piccolo and Chamber String Ensemble! Papandopulo often used piccolo in his works: primarily to depict nature, pastoral idyll, the sounds of shepherds’ flutes, chirping birds or stylized folk dance. This sunny, idyllic, arcadian atmosphere with elements of stylized chirping of birds is what characterizes the introductory Foreplay of the Concerto’s first movement. Second movement - Romance - is completely original and based on a beautiful and expressive introductory theme. Papandopulo took the main theme of the third movement from a composition he wrote seven years earlier, Marulova pisan - a musical chronicle in two parts, and modified it only slightly. Papandopulo's Little Concerto, although partially composed of “recycled” themes from his previous works, is a successful synthesis of all its elements and a true homage to one of the most likeable musical instruments.