“Great British Hope,” Kathryn Thomas presents a beautiful collection of flute music by Gabriel Faure and his contemporaries.

With the support of the composers Franck, Massenet, Fauré, Duparc and Saint-Saëns, the Société Nationale de Musique was set up in February 1871 to promote its distinctive symphonic and chamber music concerts. This disc presents a selection of music that featured in these concerts, many of which were premiered by France’s leading flautist at the time, Paul Taffanel. Thanks to Taffanel, a tradition of commissioning works especially for these concours began to emerge. At first the commissions were just for the flute competition but very soon, under Taffanel’s influence, new works began to be commissioned for all the wind and brass instruments.