Franz Schubert's 'Variations for flute and piano on Trockne Blumen' from the song-cycle ‘Die schöne Mullerin’ is considered the most important flute work of the Romantic period. It forms the centrepiece of flautist Ulf-Dieter Schaaff’s recital, ‘Airmail from Vienna’, of music with Viennese connections: highly virtuosic and lyrical, classical and modern, atonal and jazzy.

The composers Franz Schubert, Ernst Krenek, Friedrich Cerha and Paul Amadeus Pisk were all born in Vienna, while Franz Doppler (composer of the popular bravura piece ‘Fantaisie pastorale hongroise’) was a co-founder of the Vienna Philharmonic and principal flute of the Vienna Court Opera. And Berlioz’s ‘Sylphentanz’ (from The Damnation of Faust) has been reworked for flute and piano by Vienna-based composer Joseph Diermaier (born 1964).

Born in Düsseldorf, Ulf-Dieter Schaaf has been the solo flautist of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin since 1995. He has played in the Berliner Philharmonic and, in addition to his solo and chamber music activities with pianist Thomas Wellen amongst others, he is an internationally renowned teacher. In 2000, he took over a flute class at the Liszt School of Music in Weimar.