Admired by Beethoven, Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) made the four-hand piano genre his own. From the buoyant early Sonata in F major, Op. 8b, to the Beethovenian struggle of the late Allegro pathetique, Op. 123, this is melodically rich music, formally adventurous, and by turns convivial and dramatic. Marie-Luise Bodendorff and Xenia Kandel Frederiksen present the complete works, including several world premiere recordings, which together form a cornerstone of the Danish four-hand piano repertoire.
Erling Bloch – The Pioneering Danish Chamber Musician
Danacord
CD
$54.99Apr 17, 2026
Erling Bloch He was born into a home where artistic matters held pride of place. His father was a painter and at the same time extremely interested in music; therefore, a musical education was a wholly natural thing for the young Erling. Already at the age of seven he received violin tuition and was made familiar with chamber music through the cellist Emil Robert Hansen, the brother of the pianist Agnes Adler, whose piano trio was to be of great significance for him. He entered the conservatoire at the age of fifteen, where already in 1922 he gave his début concert, and only one year later became a member of The Royal Danish Orchestra. Here he was active until 1954, when teaching steadily began to take up more of his time. He had taught at the conservatoire since 1946 and became a professor there in 1949. Here he was held in affection and admired by his pupils, and was musically a central force at the conservatoire until he had to retire at the age of seventy. After his retirement, he continued as an examiner. I met him repeatedly for many years at The Royal Academy of Music, where I was a member of the staff. He was always friendly, attentive, and witty-in short, a person whom we always looked forward to meeting.
J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach & Kuhlau: Fantasies for Bassoon Solo
MDG
SACD
$24.99Jun 28, 2024
The Swiss-Franco-American virtuoso, Celeste-Marie Roy, elevates the sonorous splendour of the bassoon to vibrant new heights, dispelling many a preconception about her instrument. Roy's flexible tone, technical finesse and striking interpretation ensure this solo programme in high-resolution 3D reproduction is a dynamic listening experience!
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.
For her second volume of Kuhlau’s piano music, Marie-Luise Bodendorff takes the three previously unrecorded rondos, Op. 1, as her starting point, some of his most charming and distinctive music. She continues with the composer’s six sonatinas, Op. 55, which remain popular with pianists today. In the Fantasy on Swedish songs, Op. 93, Bodendorff displays all the craftsmanship, elegance and kindness of Kuhlau’s piano music. Friedrich Kuhlau fled from Germany to Denmark at the age of 24, when facing conscription into Napoleon’s army. He easily worked his way into the Danish musical and aristocratic milieu, gained citizenship and spent the rest of his life in the country. Kuhlau is known as Beethoven’s strongest advocate in Denmark. His piano music is melodically rich, explores the full sonority of the instrument and ranges in texture from the delicate to the imposing.
Thomas Jensen Legacy, Vol. 8 / Jensen, Aarhus Civic Orchestra
Danacord
CD
$18.99Mar 18, 2022
The result of the turbulent 1950s in Denmark's second largest city, Aarhus, was the foundation of a symphony orchestra, spearheaded and forcefully directed by conductor Thomas Jensen. His pioneering early Danish TONO recordings, comprising popular orchestral music, were a triumph and were re-released even in the US by the Mercury label. They are all here, collected together for the first time. In frustration, Jensen left Aarhus for a new job as head of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, however he returned to conduct two concerts which are here presented for the first time.
Kuhlau: Complete Sonatas for Flute and Piano / Tozzetti, Caturelli
Brilliant Classics
CD
$8.99$17.99Save 50%Aug 27, 2021
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.
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 Grøndahl'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.
Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 1 / Marie-Luise Bodendorff
Dacapo Classical
CD
$17.99May 07, 2021
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.
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.
King Frederik IX Conducts the Royal Danish Orchestra & Danish National Symphony
Dacapo Classical
CD
$25.98$51.99Save 50%Jul 31, 2020
The Danish King Frederik IX's preoccupation with music must be described as atypical, in fact, unique for a member of a royal house, since it is hardly possible to cite other examples of ruling monarchs whose favorite pastime was orchestral conducting. As a conductor Frederik IX, although self-taught, favored technically difficult challenges in the great symphonic repertoire, in particular music from Wagner's operas, gave the King's unusual musical activities a certain aura. This limited edition set celebrates two very unique King/orchestra relationship, namely King Frederik IX's close affiliation with the Royal Danish Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
All three composers featured on this recording were central to the Danish Golden Age, a period of blossoming in the arts and music that delivered countless gems. Here, principal players from the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra perform fine concertante works from two composers who are experiencing a renaissance and one who still languishes in obscurity. From the splendour of Kuhlau's William Shakespeare and his melodious Concertino, the fresh melodic qualities of Gade's Capriccio, and the as yet unpublished Oboe Concerto by Barth these new recordings from Aarhus make the case for four winning Danish scores.
Wisps in the Dell - Arrangements of Traditional Celtic Folk Songs
Olde Focus Recordings
CD
$20.99Oct 04, 2019
In the late-classical era, an Edinburgh publisher commissioned the most famous composers in continental Europe to orchestrate traditional Scottish folk songs in their original English. A lush sampling of this music is performed here by Makaris, a new early-music super-group headed by soprano Fiona Gillespie. (Olde Focus)
Duo Åstrand/Salo follow up their first installment of sonatas by Friedrich Kuhlau with a selection of some of the composer’s most impressive works for violin and piano. Friedrich Kuhlau 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. In 1813 Kuhlau was granted Danish citizenship and the honorary title of Royal Court Musician. Included on this release is what some consider the first Danish violin sonata in the Romantic style, a work that glances towards the composer’s idol Beethoven but contains plenty of individual spice and allure. It is followed by sonatas in all but name, the Trois Duos brillants from late in Kuhlau’s career. They are brilliant, as the title suggests – three varied, evocative snapshots of the great cosmopolitan of Denmark’s Golden Age.
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REVIEW:
Kuhlau’s music sounds thoroughly Germanic, and he makes no attempt to develop a Danish national style. He is definitely one of the best composers of his era, though; and it wouldn’t be until Schumann in the early 1850s that anyone would write better for violin and piano.
Friederich Kuhlau was among the most important early Romantic composers in Denmark, becoming known as the ‘Danish Beethoven’ for his popular works for flute. The etude-like Piano Sonata, Op. 127 reveals a deep expressiveness reminiscent of Chopin’s studies, while the sophisticated Piano Sonata, Op. 8a shows Kuhlau’s contemplative, darker side before closing with typical virtuoso esprit. The charm and elegance of the Sonatina, Op. 21 No. 1 has delighted piano students for generations. Jens Luhr was born in the same town as Friedrich Kuhlau, Uelzen, in northern Germany. There at the local music school, Luhr played- along with many other young piano students- the Kuhlau Sonatinas. He went on to study at the prestigious conservatories of music in Hannover, Wurzburg, Basle, and Leipzig. Luhr is known as a soloist and chamber musician, as well as being an interpreter of contemporary music, playing or taking part in several premieres. In 2012 and 2014 he won second prize at the International Music Competition of France in the highest category for pianists.
The innovative changes that characterize musical instrument making at the beginning of the 19th century reflect the increasing technical demands of composers as well as the needs of musicians striving for perfection and the audiences’ insatiable thirst for novelty. The harpsichord, which had definitely fallen out of favor because of its limited musical expression, was now superseded by the pianoforte. The range of the new instrument was expanded and in order to enhance its expressive possibilities, pedals were added to modify its tone color and timbre. Another instrument also underwent a rapid evolution: the transverse flute. The famous flute-maker Johann Georg Tromlitz developed a new key system that allowed flute players to perform with greater velocity, produce a pleasant, even tone and optimize intonation across the full range of the instrument. As to the cello, innovation affected not so much its construction as its role: the instrument gradually freed itself from playing a supporting role to the piano and became an equal partner in the ensemble, engaging in dialogue with the other instruments in its own right. And so this combination of instruments – flute, cello and piano – was now ready to establish itself in the chamber music genre. This release explores those first chamber works, and includes pieces by Carl-Maria von Weber, Friedrich Kuhlau, and Carl Czerny.
Although he was born in Hannover, Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) studied music in Denmark, and lived out his career there, becoming known as an important national composer.; Kuhlau’s style foreshadows the Romantic movement with its dissonances and harmonic changes, while still being firmly rooted in 17th century classicism.; This new release features Kuhlau’s violin sonatas op. 79, as well as two works for piano 4-hands.; These works are performed on period instruments by violinist Giorgio Leonida Tosi and pianist Paolo Porto.
Kuhlau: Piano Quartets 1 & 2 / Copenhagen Piano Quartet
Dacapo Classical
SACD
$16.99Apr 14, 2015
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Denmark’s leading instrumentalists in the classical field, Toke Lund Christiansen (flute) and Elisabeth Westenholz (piano) have been performing together for a number of years. One of their favourite repertoires is German-born Danish composer Kuhlau’s works for flute and piano, which the duo has been recording for Kontrapunkt.
This is a sequel to the highly acclaimed first volume of Variations & Divertimenti (Kontrapunkt 32237) featuring works from Kuhlau’s later years.
Toke Lund Christiansen has been the principal flutist in The Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
Elisabeth Westenholz is one of the most sought after concert pianists in Europe and her numerous recorded performances on Kontrapunkt have been received enthusiastically by critics and public alike.
Friedrich Kuhlau wrote numerous works for flutes, many of which remained to this date “popular” repertoire among professional and amateur performers. In 19XX Danish leading flautist Toke Lund Christiansen recorded the firstof his Kuhlau series “Works for 3 and 4 flutes” (32050) with his famous Kuhlau Quartet. On this his fifth Kuhlau release, Toke Lund Christiansen presents a collection of rarely heard of works by the master of flute music .
