Robert Dohn

Eskapaden

We premiered this wonderful piece on March 4, 1984 at the Sunday concerts in the former concert hall of the Landesgirokasse Stuttgart. It is a very colorful, virtuosic and expressive work in 7 movements, and shows a great influence of the French flute composers.

Each movement offers one of the five players the opportunity to fully develop. For example, a cadenza is included for the piccolo and alto flute and there is a movement in which each voice has its turn as a soloist. Robert Dohn also found fine modern effects, which are very cleverly incorporated into the composition.

I can highly recommend this quintet for advanced flutists with secondary instruments. Because of its positive life energy, it is a great pleasure to practise and perform.

I am very pleased that the 7 Escapades by Robert Dohn, my former colleague at the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, are being published by Edition Kossack.
When I took up my solo flute position in the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1983, Robert Dohn, also solo flute, had the idea of writing a piece for our five-piece flute section in which the whole flute family (piccolo, flute, alto flute and bass flute) is represented. We premiered this wonderful piece on March 4, 1984 at the Sunday concerts in what was then the concert hall of the Landesgirokasse Stuttgart. It is a very colorful, virtuosic and expressive work in 7 movements, and shows a great influence of the French flute composers. Each movement offers one of the five players the opportunity to develop their full potential. For example, there is a cadenza for the piccolo and alto flute and a solo movement for each voice. Robert Dohn also found subtle modern effects that are very cleverly integrated into the composition. The invitation to the Adams Flute Festival in Ittervoort, where I am giving a concert with my former and current students (Homage to Gaby Pas-Van Riet), gave me the idea of performing this work again. The contact with Robert Dohn's daughter, Christiane Dohn, made it possible for me to return to the autograph of this work. I am very grateful to Christiane that she immediately released the documents to me at my suggestion, as her father died in 2015. So the revival of this composition is also a special memento for me of this wonderful musician and colleague. I can highly recommend this quintet for advanced flautists with secondary instruments. Due to its positive life energy, it is a great pleasure to practice and perform it.

Gaby Pas- Van Riet

Notes by Christiane Dohn:

Solo flutist of the Munich Radio Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio
First of all, I would like to thank Prof. Gaby Pas-van Riet for bringing the piece Eskapaden for 5 flutes by my father Robert Dohn to a revival and for making the publication of the work by Edition Kossack possible. I am also very grateful to Mr. Wolfgang Kossack of Edition Kossack for his work and for the opportunity to make this piece known and accessible to the interested "flute people". Robert Dohn, born on 13.9.1936, died on 7.2.2015, was a very versatile artist: flutist, soloist, composer, but also a successful lecturer at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule. He helped many flautists, including myself, on their way to a position in the orchestra. I took part in the premiere of the Eskapaden for 5 flutes in March 1984 as a 15-year-old listener and was very impressed by the diverse spectrum of timbres of the flute family---and afterwards perhaps even more in love with the sound of the flute than before!

I hope you enjoy the Eskapaden!

Christiane Dohn