Friedrich Kuhlau is known as Beethoven’s strongest advocate in Denmark and the man who wrote Elverhøj. But Kuhlau was first and foremost a pianist, one whose works for the instrument have a depth and character of their own. In the first of a new series, Marie-Luise Bodendorff reassesses Kuhlau’s contribution to the piano literature with fresh, muscular performances of music including the previously unrecorded Divertissement, Op. 37. Marie-Luise Bodendorff took her first piano lessons at the age of five and was admitted to the Hochschule fur Musik in Karlsruhe at the age of 10. From 2002 to 2007 she studied with Russian piano authority Vladimir Krainev at the Hannover University of Music, Drama, and Media. She currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has been a part time professor of piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music since 2016.

A festive concert of great voices, this Volkslied-Edition offers on 5 CDs the most famous and most beloved German folksongs, performed by well known singers like Hermann Prey, Peter Schreier, and famous choirs, especially boys choirs, such as the Dresden Kreuzchor, Thomanerchor Leipzig and the Regensburger Domspatzen. A well done edition for all friends of choir music offered for a verys special price!

Thomas Jensen Legacy now at Vol. 20

There was no more unprejudiced or enthusiastic promoter of Danish music than Thomas Jensen. Twelve composers are featured here, in styles ranging from Romantic ballet to modernist oratorio. Nearly all the recordings are issued for the first time ever since they were originally broadcast. Taken together, they present a panoramic picture of Danish music in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The German composer Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) fled to Denmark as a young man and with his strong cosmopolitan personality became a loner – and at the same time a key figure – in the Danish Golden Age. Kuhlau championed new tones in Danish music, and his melodically appealing violin sonatas were the first Danish sonatas in the Romantic style. With this recording Duo Åstrand/Salo lends new luster to music that has only rarely been performed in our time.

Friedrich Kuhlau (1786 - 1832) lived and worked during a transitional period of classical music. A contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert, his works remain almost unknown to this day, except for some compositions for the flute. The compositional style of the sonatas featured in this recording perfectly identifies with that of his contemporaries, while showing some differences in content; the structure of the sonatas is that of the classical period, but the use of melodic themes and harmony looks to the romantic period. These interpretations of the sonatas for flute and piano highlight the constant dialogue between the two instruments; in fact there is a continuous thematic exchange, which the artists found interesting to discover and highlight. The synergy is perceived above all in choppy tempos, while in every Adagio or Andante the flute assumes the role of the solo instrument, and the piano accompanies and responds. The themes in the slow movements are sweet and moving, and the composer manages to evoke emotions that are always different from each other, thus bringing out his predisposition for this type of tempo, present even in the most brilliant movements: in fact in every allegro, even in the one characterized by the greatest energy, there is a moment of tranquility in which the composer takes the time to make performers and listeners ponder.

Born in Hamburg in 1786, the son of a military bandsman, Friedrich Kuhlau showed early musical promise and took lessons with a student of CPE Bach. When Napoleon’s troops invaded Hamburg in 1810, the 24-year-old Kuhlau fled with his family to Copenhagen, and there he made his name as a pianist and composer to the royal court. Taking Danish citizenship in 1813, he worked in the vanguard of the country’s fast-moving cultural scene, enjoying huge success as a composer of operas and incidental music. Kuhlau was himself a flautist of modest accomplishment, but the popularity of salon culture in Denmark increased the demand for flute and piano music - which were both fashionable at the time - to such an extent that Kuhlau complained, in a letter to his publisher in 1829, about having too many commissions. While a flautist of modest accomplishment himself, Kuhlau wrote with unfailing craft, sympathy and imagination for the instrument and before their publication he submitted his new works for approval from the principal flautist of the Court Chapel’s orchestra. The seven trios recorded here display a surprising variety of texture and mood. Even the trio of Op.13 works from 1815 ranges from the Baroque manners of No.3’s Adagio to a much grander scale of expression in the slow introduction which opens the curtain on No.1 and on the set as a whole. There is a dashing, Mendelssohnian quality to both the melodies and the sunny disposition of the Op.86 set from 1827 which itself is set aside for a more intense, Beethovenian argument in the grand trio Op.90. In 2015 three Asian flautists founded the Flute East Trio at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

The album “In einer Zauberstunde” (In a Magic Hour) by the Australian-born flutist Xavier Luck and his compatriot Daniel Linton-France focuses on works for flute and piano that have been inspired by Lied or opera. The center piece is the Introduction and Variations on “Trockne Blumen” from Die schöne Müllerin, D 802, by Franz Schubert. This is contrasted by the Introduction and Variations on a theme from Carl Maria von Weber’s “Euryanthe” for Flute and Piano, Op. 63 by Friedrich Kuhlau, which was composed in the same year.

A contemporary take on this subject are the Fantasy on a theme by Franz Schubert (“Du bist die Ruh’”) and the eponymous “In einer Zauberstunde” by Daniel Linton-France, which are presented as world premiere recordings. The latter work was prompted by Xavier Luck and is a virtuoso work which picks up various themes and motifs from W.A. Mozarts “Zauberflöte”, from which the titel is derived. As concluding piece we find another Lied by Schubert, “Des Baches Wiegenlied”, once again from his song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, in an arrangement for flute and piano by Anton Diabelli.

Danish conductor Emil Reesen — The composer and conductor Emil Reesen (1887-1964) was the remarkable Jack-of-all-trades of Danish music who mastered all genres and styles – the only thing that mattered to him was that the quality of the music was good. His career began in the world of the theatre, where he played the piano in music theatres in Copenhagen and as time went on also began to conduct, arrange and compose music for various operettas and revues. And he was really good at this. During the years around the First World War Reesen came to the conclusion that he was the best conductor in town despite not having studied at the conservatoire. The decisive thing was his considerable innate talent.

Classical Music

Some delightful piano works in the spirit of Haydn and Mozart.

This release marks another disc in the lengthening series of Kuhlau’s compositions on Naxos.

Kuhlau, born in 1786 to a musician with the German Army, began his musical education in Lüneburg with piano, and also began to compose at that time. Around 1800 he studied with C. F. G. Schwenke, the man who succeeded C. P. E. Bach in the position as Hamburg Stadtkantor. By 1804, Kuhlau was in the process of launching his career as a pianist in earnest. Blind in one eye since childhood, Kuhlau fled to Copenhagen under an alias to avoid mandatory military service; his half-blindness evidently did not compel the authorities to exempt him. He eventually became a naturalised citizen of Denmark and established his base there for the rest of his life.

Known to this reviewer primarily for his compositions for flute — various discs have been released recently of his flute sonatas and trios on Naxos and other labels. Kuhlau also produced a number of other pieces, primarily for chamber ensembles.

The works on offer on the present disc are short and charming, with most movements lasting no longer than three minutes. Jandó does right, I think, in keeping the performances simple and straightforward. The object of these pieces is not to impress or give a listener a good deal of food for thought. These are meant primarily to entertain. They are likely to be familiar to piano students worldwide. There isn’t much here that would surprise the listener, but there are a few moments of particular interest, such as the unexpected similarity of the opening movement of the Sonatina in A minor, Op. 88 No. 3 to Beethoven’s 1810 Für Elise. Another standout is the opening Allegro maestoso of the Op. 55 No. 6 Sonatina in C which, with its length of just over seven minutes, allows for a bit more mulling over of its thematic material.

The recording aesthetic for this disc is just what one would expect from Naxos: warm ambience without losing presence or definition. Jandó gives these pieces a clean and clear performance. Quite a pleasant disc for casual listening.

-- David Blomenberg, MusicWeb International

KUHLAU Piano Sonatas, op. 59: in A; in F; in C. Sonatinas, op. 20: in C; in G; in F • Jen? Jandó (pn) • NAXOS 8.570709 (59:07)


Ill-fated Friedrich Kuhlau (1786–1832) suffered a number of life’s mishaps. The first, at age seven, was the loss of his right eye in a street accident. The second, many years later, was the loss of all his unpublished manuscripts in a fire that burned his house to the ground. But perhaps the greatest misfortune of all to befall him was Beethoven, or, more specifically, to have been born and lived in Beethoven’s shadow. Born in Germany, Kuhlau fled to Copenhagen in 1810 to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic Army. What? No 4-F exemptions for one-eyed musicians? He remained in Denmark for the rest of his life, never gaining much traction as a composer except for his Danish opera, Elverhøj ( Elf Mound ). He did, however, achieve some recognition as a concert pianist; as a great admirer of Beethoven, Kuhlau introduced a number of Beethoven’s works to Copenhagen audiences. Of Kuhlau’s manuscripts that escaped the flames and made it to publication, there are approximately 200, consisting mainly of chamber works, solo piano pieces, and enough pieces for flute to have earned him the nickname “the Beethoven of the flute.”


Kuhlau is said to have been most heavily influenced by Beethoven, and as one listens to these sonatas and sonatinas, it’s clear that he had at least the more superficial aspects of Beethoven’s early style down pat. I’m speaking here of the keyboard figurations, the harmonic progressions, and the gestural articulation. A perfect example is the Adagio e sostenuto movement of the G-Major Sonatina, op. 20/2. But here the comparison ends. Kuhlau is but a dinghy caught in the wake of an aircraft carrier. Had he lived 25 years earlier, these mostly slight works might have been seen as a significant advance in keyboard style, but he didn’t; and this is what I meant above when I said that Kuhlau’s greatest misfortune was to have been born and lived in the shadow of Beethoven. Consider that the op. 20 sonatinas on this disc are dated 1820; the op. 59 sonatas, 1824. By this late date, Beethoven was done with the piano sonata as a vehicle for expressing his musical ideas. The “Hammerklavier” and the three last sonatas were behind him.


The taxonomic division of the works on this disc into sonatas and sonatinas is a bit of a puzzler. Keith Anderson’s booklet note homes in on this very point, informing us that the three op. 59 works are often published as sonatinas rather than sonatas. The crux of the matter is that in musical lexicography a sonatina refers either to a small-scaled, modest sonata or, more properly, to a sonata-allegro movement without a development section. The op. 59 set on the disc does feature the requisite first-movement development sections to qualify as sonatas, but oddly, they are all relatively brief works and in only two movements. The op. 20 set, though called “sonatinas,” are all more extended three-movement works and, at least in one case—the F-Major—there is a short development section.


It is likely that most, if not all, of these pieces were written for students, as Kuhlau earned no small amount of his income teaching and publishing just such sonatas and sonatinas intended for young fingers. In a 2006 New York Times article I came across on the Internet (http: //www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/arts/music/02holl.html), Bernard Holland acknowledges that “none of these sonatinas prepare the student for Beethoven at his most ornery,” and asks “Why play Kuhlau in the first place?” He answers his own question thus: “It is easy to dismiss this annoyingly perfect music as a product of mindless rote or a series of bad habits having outlived their time. But the sonatinas have their uses.” What they are, according to Holland, strike me as a bit misguided. “Really interesting composers like Haydn and Beethoven” he continues ( leaving Mozart and Schubert out of the equation —my italics), “violated the unwritten road maps with glee; but fully to understand the originality of the violators, it is nice to have a Kuhlau or a Muzio Clementi to show you just what is being violated.” Apart from the fact that the road maps of harmonic progression and sonata form were hardly unwritten by the late 18th century, what Holland seems to be saying is that Kuhlau’s only purpose is to provide us with a sextant by which to measure the degrees of deviation from true north practiced by the “really interesting composers.”


I have a rather different take on it. In the grander scheme of things, which we cannot know, it may be that neither Kuhlau nor any of the “really interesting composers” has any purpose at all, other than to afford us some pleasure and comfort while we wait to shuck off this mortal coil. Kuhlau is never less than harmonious, pleasing to the ear, attractive, and entertaining. As music, it’s a vacant sand lot, but one I’d rather trudge through than the barren dunes of some of what passes for music today.


Jen? Jandó is one of Naxos’s “house” pianists. He plays everything they throw at him smartly and stylishly. These pieces, of course, make no technical demands that a polished professional such as Jandó isn’t up to. The recording was made in 2007 with Jandó playing a modern grand piano. While recordings of Kuhlau’s keyboard works abound, the current CD appears to be the only one currently available containing these specific opus numbers. Buy, enjoy, and be happy.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Friedrich Kuhlau Was the Most Cosmopolitan Personality in Danish Music at the Beginning of the 19th Century. A Creative, Forward-Looking and Extremely Productive Composer, He Rarely Let His Pen Lie Idle. The Two Piano Quartets Recorded on This CD By the Young Copenhagen Piano Quartet Are Major Works from the Composer's Most Artistically Fertile Decade, Besides Testifying to Kuhlau's Own Brilliance As a Pianist.

Do try the disc, you will hear some charming music and some superb flute playing.

Kuhlau is a composer whose name you might have heard, or whose music you might just have come across in one of those albums of teaching pieces. He came from a musical family in Germany, son and grandson of town and regimental musicians. He studied in Hamburg with a pupil of C.P.E. Bach.

In 1804, still in Hamburg, he started his career as a pianist. But in 1810 the city was invaded by Napoleon and Kuhlau avoided military service only because he was blind in one eye - the result of a childhood accident.

He fled to Copenhagen where he attempted to establish himself as a pianist and composer making his first appearance as a pianist at court in 1811. Naturalised in 1813, he received a court appointment, but this remained largely unpaid. He had some success with his singspiel Robber's Castle and made a name for himself as a pianist throughout Scandinavia. Joined in Scandinavia by his parents and sisters who were financially dependent on him; despite his successes, his life seems to have remained something of a financial struggle.

He visited Berlin, Leipzig and Vienna on occasions. In 1825 he managed to spend the evening with Beethoven and friends though the alcoholic haze meant that he had no strong recollections of this meeting.

In 1830 his parents died. The year after there was a serious fire at his house near Copenhagen and a large number of his unpublished compositions were destroyed. This seems to have had a deleterious effect on his health and he died in 1832.

His surviving body of music includes quite a bit of chamber music for flute; his Sonatas for Flute and Piano published in 1827, earned him the nickname 'the Beethoven of the Flute'. Kuhlau did not play the flute, but benefited from the advice of a flautist in the Copenhagen theatre orchestra. His flute pieces include duos, trios and quartets for unaccompanied flutes.

On this disc the European Flute Trio play five of Kuhlau's flute trios. The Grand Trio in B minor, op. 90 was published in 1828 and is the most virtuosic of all the pieces on the disc. The three trios op. 13, were published in 1815, and the Trio in E minor, op. 86 no. 1 was published in 1827.

Kuhlau wrote quite a bit of salon music and the salon is never very far away in these piece, no matter how classically and seriously they are constructed. The Grand Trio has a strong whiff of the virtuoso salon showpiece which was popular in the 19th century. The remaining trios are charming works, quite substantial in length. They were probably written for talented amateurs to play rather than as concert works.

The European Flute Trio (Antonio De Matola, Maxence Larrieu and Carlo de Matola) play these pieces as if to the manner born. They have no trouble at all with the virtuoso elements required and produce cascades of beautiful, liquid sounds. The three players balance nicely and create a good feeling of ensemble whilst remaining three distinct voices. Both De Matolas were pupils of Maxence Larrieu, which probably helps with the group's cohesion.

There were occasions when I thought that the recording was a little too close: we can hear slightly too much detail in the breath and beating in the flute tone. But this is a small point and does not prevent enjoyment.

Frankly, I was rather surprised at how much I enjoyed this disc. A whole CD of music for three unaccompanied flutes could be a little daunting. But Kuhlau's music has charm, lightness and strength of construction and this is brought out in these performances.

Do try the disc, you will hear some charming music and some superb flute playing.

-- Robert Hugill, MusicWeb International

Known to his contemporaries as "the Beethoven of the flute", Friedrich Kuhlau took much inspiration from the master of Bonn, who was a major influence on his work. The two even met in Vienna in 1825, an encounter which was a resounding success and during which they improvised canons. Kuhlau's output for the flute comprises over 60 works -- an impressive total for a composer who was not a flautist himself. His friend and colleague Bruun was a great help in this respect, being the essential first pair of eyes on all of Kuhlau's compositions for the instrument.

The unusual scoring of the flute quintets -- using flute, violin, two violas and a cello -- gives a great richness to the sound, due to the presence of the three lower-register instruments. The flute essentially takes the role of first violin rather than soloist, becoming an integral part of the structure and development of each of these elegant works. Flautist Ginevra Petrucci joins the internationally acclaimed Kodály Quartet for the recording.

Other information:
Recorded 27--29 December 2012, The Phoenix Studio, Budapest.
- Three delightful Flute Quintets by Friedrich Kuhlau, the "Beethoven of the flute", as his contemporaries called him.
- In 1828 Kuhlau met the great Beethoven, his lifelong inspiration and example. Though no composer can even think of imitating such a musical giant, Kuhlau's works contain certain Beethovenian features, such as structural strength, motivic development and a true expression of feeling.
- Excellent performances by Italian star flutist Ginevra Petrucci, and the internationally acclaimed Kodály Quartet.
- Contains liner notes on the works and performer biographies.

Friedrich Kuhlau's Luluis the Danish 'Magic Flute'. Long unavailable on record, this foundational work in the repertoire of Danish comic opera can be enjoyed once again in a historic broadcast performance from 1956. Remastered from original radio tapes and never previously issued, this performance represents the Danish sing-spiel tradition at it's most delightful. Five bonus tracks pay testament to Launy Gr�ndahl's sympathetic partnerships with the finest Danish singers of his day. Volume 7 will have concerto by Beethoven and symphony by Schubert, scheduled for late 2021 Summer release.