39 Facts About Albert Fransella

Albert Fransella was a virtuoso flutist and principal flutist of Dutch and British orchestras between 1880 and 1925.

Albert Fransella's mother died when Fransella was just one year old.

In 1881 he played for Johannes Brahms, who was enthusiastic about Albert Fransella's playing, saying that a brilliant career lay before the youth.

Albert Fransella came to England from The Netherlands in 1884 at the age of nineteen when he was appointed as principal flautist with the Scottish Orchestra, Glasgow.

Albert Fransella first appeared in London under Jules Riviere's Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden.

Albert Fransella performed no less than eleven times as solo flautist with the orchestra under Willem Kes, playing such repertoire as Doppler's L'oiseau des bois, op.

Albert Fransella then became the leading player in England, replacing Oluf Svendsen when he retired as first flute in the Crystal Palace Orchestra in 1892, before he was invited to become first flute in Henry Wood's newly founded Queen's Hall Orchestra in 1895.

Albert Fransella later became the principal flute of the Philharmonic Society Orchestra, playing with them until 1925 when he was succeeded by Robert Murchie.

Albert Fransella taught at Trinity College of Music in London.

Albert Fransella taught Ary van Leeuwen, Emil Medicus, Marguerite de Forest-Anderson, Edgar Hunt, Joseph Emile Slater and Holger Gilbert-Jespersen.

Albert Fransella had the distinction of being a soloist at the first Henry Wood Promenade concert on 10 August 1895, playing two movements from the Suite de Trois Morceaux by Benjamin Godard.

Albert Fransella first used the new flute at a recital at the Queen's Hall in 1896.

Albert Fransella played at the Promenade concerts no less than 356 times from 1895 until 1918, becoming one of the players that the audience liked to spot and personally welcome to the stage.

In 1898 Albert Fransella organised a concert at the Queen's Hall to show off four flutes which he had commissioned from Rudall Carte.

Albert Fransella played with the Queen's Hall Wind Quintet, founded in 1902 alongside Desire Lalande, Manuel Gomez, Frederick James and Adolf Borsdorf.

Albert Fransella was to give and present many first performances of works by the twentieth century's great composers.

Albert Fransella gave the first English performance of Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune at a Promenade concert with the Queen's Hall Orchestra on the 20th of August, 1904.

Such was his fame, that in 1906 a caricature appeared of Albert Fransella entitled The Paganini of the Flute in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.

Albert Fransella received high praise for his conducting and pianistic skills.

In May 1906, Albert Fransella played at a Bach Memorial concert in the Aeolian Hall, to raise funds for the purchase of Bach's house in Eisenach and for the endowment of a Bach Museum.

Albert Fransella edited several publications and published several of his own compositions via this publishing house.

Albert Fransella premiered the 1907 Idyll by Walthew, published by Stainer and Bell, with the pianist Frederick B Kiddle at a Queen's Hall Prom in September 1907.

Albert Fransella was the first flute player to be a named recording artist and accompanied the great sopranos Luisa Tetrazzini, Nellie Melba, Ellen Beach Yaw, Evangeline Florence, Alice Esty, Ruth Vincent, Dorothy Silk, Adelina Patti, Christina Nilsson Emma Albani, Mademoiselle Dolores and Mignon Nevada.

Albert Fransella named the fourth of his seven children Ella Melba Albert Fransella, after the great soprano.

Albert Fransella had performed with Melba to great acclaim in a June concert in 1894.

Albert Fransella married Ella Marie Brennen in 1889 and they had seven children.

In 1912 Albert Fransella and Henri accompanied the first performance of Regine Wieniawski's A Poor Young Shepherd, sung by her husband Sir Aubrey Dean Paul with Wieniawski on piano.

In 1912 Albert founded the first Fransella Trio with Marjorie Hayford on violin and Winifred Christie on piano.

Albert Fransella, performing alongside Harry Waldo Warner on viola and Miriam Timothy on harp, gave the first public performance of Debussy's Trio for Flute, Viola and Harp at the Aeolian Hall on the 2nd February 1917.

Later that year, Albert Fransella gave the first performance of Dora Bright's Suite Bretonne with the Queen's Hall Orchestra and Henry Wood at the Proms.

Albert Fransella was still considered the best player in England in 1919 when Gerald Jackson, the future first flute of Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra, became his pupil.

On 6 October 1920, Albert Fransella gave the first performance of Arthur Bliss's Rhapsody, for wordless soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble, at a Gerald Cooper Concert at the Mortimer Hall, London.

Later that year, on 15 December 1920, Albert Fransella gave the first performance of Arthur Bliss's Rout, for wordless soprano and chamber ensemble, at the Piccadilly home of Baroness d'Erlanger.

Between the years 1924 and 1926, Albert Fransella played for the British Broadcasting Company.

Albert Fransella was the foreign correspondent in England for the American The Flutist magazine, a monthly flute journal published by Emil Medicus between 1920 and 1929.

Albert Fransella undertook a largely unsuccessful extended tour of South Africa in 1928 and returned to England in the autumn of 1930 in straitened circumstances.

In what may have been his last public concert, in February 1934 at The Ballet Club in London, as part of the Macnaghten-Lemare concert series, focusing on New works by young English composers, Albert Fransella performed John Locke's Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, and Cello.

Albert Fransella made few recitals after this date and in early March 1935, just ten days before his 70th birthday, he committed suicide in London, after a severe illness.

Albert Fransella is remembered in the Musicians' Book of Remembrance in the Musician's Chapel within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in London.