Description

Gentle and tuneful, another Griffith dedication Intermezzo, published in 1894, was the third piece German wrote for the eminent flautist Frederick Griffith, a friend from his student days at the Royal Academy of Music. The pair often worked together following their appearance at the Steinway Hall in May, 1892, where the first performance of German’s Suite for Flute and Piano received an outstanding reception from the critics, and where they also played Saltarello (1889).
Following his appointment to the Royal Italian Opera Orchestra in 1895 we hear little of Griffith as a soloist save for his successful tours with Dame Nellie Melba, notably that of Australia in 1902. Nevertheless, German dedicated Old English Melody (Early One Morning) to him in 1900, and, in the same year, Griffith wrote to his old teacher in Paris, Paul Taffanel, describing German as “the most gifted composer and beautiful orchestrator that we have over here. In fact he is quite different to any other English composer, whose works generally I confess I do not care for.”