Giulio Briccialdi has been one of the major European flutists of the Nineteenth Century. Praised by coeval critics as "the first among the living flutists" in a period when virtuosos were reaching extraordinary levels, Briccialdi was a unique artist with a quintessentially Romantic personality. His refined activity as a composer is nowadays mostly known thanks to his paraphrases on operatic themes and to his didactic output, but it is through his concertos - a real cornerstone in the instrumental virtuosic repertoire of the 1800s - that Briccialdi exploits the pinnacle of his opera-influenced style. Briccialdi's conceertos are intended for technically and stylistically advanced performers.