Flute Concerto

Ibert's flute concerto appeared in 1934 and is dedicated to Marcel Moyse, the leading French flautist of the period; it is counted among the hardest pieces in the instrument's repertoire. Ibert had won the Prix de Rome at his first attempt and later directed the French Academy in Rome for more than twenty years. He rejected both the impressionism and the expressionism dominant around 1900 and stated his position as freedom from the prejudices that divide defenders of a tradition from partisans of an avant-garde: all systems are valid, provided one draws music from them.