Here is the difference in sound between the two flutes. I'm playing both examples and the excerpt is the first movement of Telemann's Fantasia 2 in A minor.
Here is the piece played on the regular C flute (soprano flute), for which it was actually written:
And here is the same piece played on the alto flute. The alto flute is a transposing instrument - everything in the key of C major sounds a fourth below in G major. This goes for every key, major and minor, so for example D major will sound as A major and E minor will sound as B minor on the alto flute.
In this case, the piece is written in A minor but on the alto flute, it sounds in E minor. You will notice a difference between the two.
The alto flute sounds airier because of the bigger bore and it also requires a lot more air. The mechanism is slower, heavier, and less agile than that of the soprano flute, and if you listen closely to the sound clip, you can hear it clicking.
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