20th century
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
20th century
21st century
Solo repertoire
Piccolo
Alto flute
Bass flute
Halphen Fernand
Aitken, Robert
Amirov, Fikret
Amlin, Martin
Amram, David
Andriessen, Jurriaan
Arnold, Malcolm
Arrieu, Claude
Auric, Georges
Babbit, Milton
Bacchus, Peter
Bacri, Nicolas
Baker, Michael Conway
Baksa, Robert
Barber, Samuel
Barrere, Georges
Bartók, Béla Viktor János
Baton, René-Emmanuel
Beaser, Robert
Bennet, Richard Rodney
Berg, Gunnar
Berio, Luciano
Bernofsky, Lauren
Bernstein, Leonard
Bloch, Ernest
Bolling, Claude
Bon, Maarten
Bonis, Mel
Boughton, Rutland
Boulanger, Marie-Juliette
Boulez, Pierre
Bourdin, Roger
Bournonville, Armand
Bowen, Edwin York
Bozza, Eugène Joseph
Bréville, Pierre
Brings, Allen
Brotons, Salvador
Brown, Elizabeth
Brun, Georges
Burkhard, Willy
Burton, Eldin
Büsser, Henri
Camus, Pierre
Carmichael, John
Carter, Elliott
Casella, Alfredo
Chaynes, Charles
Clarke, Ian
Colgrass, Michael
Colquhoun, Michael
Copland, Aaron
Corigliano, John
Cortese, Luigi
Currier, Sebastian
Dahl, Walter Ingolf Marcus
Damase, Jean-Michel
Davidovsky, Mario
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Debussy, Claude
Del Tredici, David
DeLaney, Charles Oliver
Delerue, Georges
Denisov, Edison
Dèsbriere, Jacques
Dick, Robert
Dinicu, Grigoraș
Dodgson, Stephen
Dohnányi, Ernő
Dubois, Pierre Max
Dukas, Paul
Durey, Louis
Dutilleux, Henri
Enescu, George
Farkas, Ferenc
Feld, Jindřich
Ferroud, Pierre-Octave
Flothuis, Marius
Folio, Cynthia
Foote, Arthur
Foss, Lukas
Françaix, Jean
Fukushima, Kazuo
Gade, Jacob
Gál, Hans
Gaubert, Philippe
Genzmer, Harald
George, Thom Ritter
Ghidoni, Armando
Gieseking, Walter
Glass, Philip
Glière, Reinhold
Golovin, Andrei
Gordeli, Otar
Grier, Lita
Griffes, Charles Tomlinson
Grinblat, Romuald
Grovlez, Gabriel
Guarnieri, Mozart Camargo
Gubajdulina, Sofia
Hahn, Reynaldo
Hailstork, Adolphus
Halphen, Fernand
Hanson, Howard Harold
Harberg, Amanda
Harbison, John
Harsányi, Tibor
Harty, Hamilton
Heiss, John
Heith, David
Henze, Hans-Werner
Higdon, Jennifer
Hindemith, Paul
Holliger, Heinz
Holmboe, Vagn
Honegger, Arthur
Hoover, Katherine
Hosokawa, Toshio
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Hüe, Georges Adolphe
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Ibert, Jacques
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Ives, Charles
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James, Bob
Jemnitz, Sándor
Jirák, Karel Boleslav
Jóhannsson, Magnús Blöndal
Jolivet, André
Jongen, Joseph
Karg-Elert, Sigfrid
Kay, Ulysses
Kelterborn, Rudolf
Ķeniņš, Tālivaldis
Kennan, Kent Wheeler
Kennedy, Martin
Kernis, Aaron Jay
Khachaturian, Aram
Kocsár, Miklós
Kodaly, Zoltan
Koechlin, Charles
Kornauth, Egon
Kraft, Leo
Krzywicki, Jan
Kupferman, Meyer
La Montaine, John
Lauber, Joseph
Lavista, Mario
Lee, Eugene
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Levinson, Gerald
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Mahler, Gustav
Maresz, Yan
Martin, Frank
Martino, Donald
Martinů, Bohuslav
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Mower, Mike
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Offermans, Wil
Olsen, Carl Gustav Sparre
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Perle, George
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Piazzolla, Astor
Piston, Walter
Poulenc, Francis
Prokofiev, Sergey
Rachmaninoff, Sergei
Ran, Shulamit
Raphael, Günter
Rautavaara, Einojuhani
Ravel, Maurice
Reynolds, Verne
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Rivier, Jean
Rodrigo, Joaquin
Rota, Nino
Rotaru, Doina
Rouse, Christopher
Roussel, Albert
Rutter, John
Saariaho, Kaija
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Schmidt, Ole
Schocker, Gary
Schulhoff, Erwin
Schwantner, Joseph
Sciarrino, Salvatore
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Sibelius, Jean
Smit, Leo
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Takemitsu, Tōru
Taktakishvili, Otar
Tansman, Alexandre
Tomasi, Henri
Tower, Joan
Uébayashi, Yuko
Varèse, Edgar
Vasks, Pēteris
Weigl, Vally
Weinberg, Mieczysław
Wilder, Alec
Williams, Ralph Vaughan
Yi, Chen
Yun, Isang
Zgraja, Krystof
Sicilienne for flute and piano
Sicilienne for flute and piano
Fernand Halphen: Sicilienne for flute and piano was written in 1906 and dedicated to Adolphe Hennebains, one of the most influential French flautists of the era, a professor at the Paris Conservatoire (succeeding Taffanel), and the principal flute of the Paris Opéra.
By 1906, Halphen was an established figure in the French musical elite. A student of Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré, he had won the Second Grand Prix de Rome in 1896. In 1906, his style represented the height of the Belle Époque aesthetic: elegance, clear formal structures, and a "finesse" that avoided the heavy emotionalism of German Romanticism.
Halphen was a close friend of many members of the "French Flute School." His collaboration with Adolphe Hennebains in 1906 was part of a larger movement where composers wrote "character pieces" to showcase the new Boehm-system metal flute. The Sicilienne was designed to highlight the instrument's lyrical, "vocal" quality in the middle register: a hallmark of Hennebains' own playing style.
In 1906, Halphen was also deeply involved in the construction of his famous estate, the Château de la Chapelle-en-Serval. He and his wife, Alice de Koenigswarter (a great patroness of music), hosted frequent salon evenings. The Sicilienne was likely premiered or "tried out" in these private gatherings of the Parisian elite before its formal publication.
Sharon Sparrow (flute), Rudolf Ozolins (piano), November 23, 2020 performance
Sicilienne
Halphen Fernand
Fernand Halphen (1872–1917) was a distinguished French composer of the Belle Époque, whose promising career was cut short by his service in World War I. His work is characterized by the elegance and lyrical restraint typical of the French Flute School.
Born into a highly cultured and wealthy Jewish Parisian family, he enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire at a young age, where he became a favored student of the most influential teachers of the era. He studied composition under Jules Massenet and later Gabriel Fauré. He also studied counterpoint and fugue with Théodore Dubois and organ with César Franck.
In 1896, he achieved one of the highest honors for a young French composer, winning the Second Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata Mélusine. This solidified his standing among the Parisian musical elite.
Following his marriage to Alice de Koenigswarter in 1899, Halphen became a central figure in Parisian cultural life.
He commissioned the architect René Sergent to build a magnificent estate where he hosted frequent salons. These gatherings included the greatest performers of the day, such as flautist Adolphe Hennebains and the Capet Quartet.
His compositional style remained loyal to the clarity, melodic sweetness, and formal balance he learned from Massenet, largely resisting the more radical shifts of Impressionism.
Despite his wealth and age, Halphen volunteered for service during World War I. He served as a bandmaster for the 13th Territorial Infantry Regiment. He died in 1917 at the age of 45 due to an illness contracted at the front.