Albert Fransella (1865-1935)

“Mr Fransella sacrifices boldness of style to delicacy of tone and perfection of execution. He takes his instrument as it is, and does not enlarge the holes to get a big tone, or otherwise spoil it for ordinary players and trusts to his power of lip to make it practicable for himself. What we got from him therefore was the normal modern orchestral flute, very well played”.

(George Bernard Shaw, The World, 7/3/1894)

Born in Amsterdam, Fransella studied with Jacques de Jong. He appeared at the very first Henry Wood Prom Concert on 10^th August 1895 playing Godard’s Waltz (Suite) and first recorded in 1898 for the Gramophone Company.

He played in the Crystal Palace Orchestra 1855-1901, the Queen’s Hall Orchestra 1895-1919, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 1900-1925 and made tours with Melba and Tetrazzini. He also held principal positions in the Scottish Orchestra and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. As flute professor at Guildhall and Trinity College he was a very successful and influential teacher.

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