Saline Royale Academy – Davide Formisano's masterclass: Claude-Paul Taffanel's Grand Fantasy, from Opera Mignon

About this event

In this masterclass, Professor Davide Formisano is accompanied by young flute student Nino Ochigava from Georgia, who will continue playing “la Grande Fantaisie sur Mignon” by Claude Paul Taffanel. Professor Formisano mentions at the beginning how much the relation between the soloist and the orchestra is important and how much of it comes from the soloist ability to communicate with body language. He also insists on the many ways one can manage air flow in order to push espressivo, for example, whenever required. Bad air management is the first limitation to one's interpretation and one's capacity to express oneself. Tongue movement, lip positioning and air management allow one to play more freely other arrangements or variations. Without cassa armonica, he says, it is difficult to compete with the piano or the violin, therefore an excellent technique is required earlier on to compete with sound quality, especially mouth-wise.

What we learn:

• Before anything, one should find where to breathe seamlessly,

• Ways to use body language to communicate with the orchestra,

• One should be able to sing the piece before blowing in the flute,

• Managing air flow is key to widen one's technical prowess,

• Personify movements into memorable characters, to help with memory.

Featuring

Professor: Davide Formisano

Student: Nino Ochigava

Repertoire

1. Paul Taffanel / Ambroise Thomas: Grande Fantaisie for Flute and Piano

Duration: approx. 49 minutes.