Friedrich Kuhlau Works for Solo Piano Vol. 1

Friedrich Kuhlau Works for Solo Piano Vol. 1 Marie-Luise Bodendorff Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) Divertissement in E-flat Major, Op. 37 (1822)* 18:44 1 I. Maestoso 2:03 Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 1 2 II. Allegretto 5:16 3 III. Marcia 5:20 Marie-Luise Bodendorff, piano 4 IV. Rondo alla polacca 5:01 5 V. Allegro assai 1:03 Piano Sonatina in C Major, Op. 20, No. 1 (1820) 7:55 6 I. Allegro 3:03 7 II. Andante 2:27 8 III. Rondo 2:25 Piano Sonatina in G Major, Op. 20, No. 2 (1820) 10:11 9 I. Allegro 4:43 10 II. Adagio e sostenuto 2:28 11 III. Allegro scherzando 3:00 Piano Sonatina in F Major, Op. 20, No. 3 (1820) 10:03 12 I. Allegro con spirito 3:55 13 II. Larghetto 3:34 14 III. Alla polacca 2:34 Piano Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 4 (1810) 24:58 15 I. Largo assai 2:48 16 II. Allegro con brio 7:00 17 III. Tema con variazioni 5:44 18 IV. Adagio 4:19 19 V. Vivacissimo 5:07 Total 71:51 * World premiere recording A German in Denmark Kuhlau struggled to make ends bandmaster father bought his son sense of drama and ele gance. Kuh- meet as a pianist in the northern a piano, sealing the young man’s lau had already played Beethoven’s provinces of Germany and when relationship with the instrument that Op. 16 Quintet for Piano and Winds Napoleon finally took control of would come, as much as the flute, in Denmark before introducing the By Andrew Mellor Hamburg, he faced conscription to define his career. Royal Danish Theatre audience to into the army. The decision to By 1803, his family had settled his own concerto. On 23 January 1811, the curtain at travel north proved to be one of the in Hamburg, where Kuhlau quickly Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre went most astute of his career, even if it progressed and soon was studying Kuhlau’s continental provenance up to reveal an unfamiliar German was only conceived as a stopgap. with Christian Friedrich Gottlieb prompted aristocrats to seek him musician on stage. ‘His bony form Kuhlau was no stranger to bad luck, Schwencke, who had succeeded out as a teacher. With the memory seemed somewhat clumsy in his but as newcomer to Denmark he Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach as of poverty lingering still, the pianist black concert attire’, read a report easily worked his way into the coun- organist at Hamburg’s Katharinen- developed a fierce worth ethic of the event. ‘He had a good head try’s musical and aristocratic milieu. kirche. His decision to head north but was never entirely satisfied of curly hair and a long ruddy face Within three years he was walking may have been influenced by his un- teaching. At the request of Adam marred by the lack of one eye […]. the corridors of its palaces as a cle’s employment as an organist in Oehlenschläger, he wrote his first Then he sat down and began to Danish citizen, and would live in the the north Jutland town of Aalborg. singspiel for the Royal Danish play the piece, his Piano Concerto country for the rest of his life. Either way, Kuhlau hit Danish soil Theatre, Røverborgen (Robbers’ in C Major, and the impression of running. The Royal Danish Thea- Castle), which premiered in 1814. awkwardness that had encumbered Daniel Friedrich Rudolph Kuhlau tre performance of 1811 was well The sometimes-bumpy relation- his overall appearance vanished. was born in Uelzen, near Hano- received, as much given the Danes’ ship with the theatre that ensued He proved to be a master’. ver, in 1786. When he fell down natural affection for an awkward, would reach its height in 1828 with The musician was Friedrich a staircase as a child, a shard of underdog figure as for their genuine Kuhlau’s music for the play Elverhøj Kuhlau. Weeks earlier, in the final glass from a bottle he was carry- interest in Kuhlau’s music. Denmark (Elves’ Hill), written to celebrate days of 1810, the 24-year-old had ing injured the young Friedrich’s knew of Beethoven and sensed the wedding of King Frederik VI’s escaped to the Danish capital under right eye, which he eventually lost. Kuhlau’s connection to the German daughter. The score would become the name Kasper Meier. For years, During his con valescence, Kuhlau’s master’s style in his own music’s a touchstone of Danish culture, its 5 status sealed a century and a half scores for flute that have ensured (cool, not lukewarm). Beethoven Kuhlau’s music bore all the hall- later when parts of its overture were his name retains currency in wood- wrote apologetically to ‘my dear marks of early Romanticism at a elaborately choreographed by a wind circles. Kuhlau’ after the event, apparently time when Danish music was only band of score-reading robbers in It was as a pianist that Kuhlau embarrassed that he may have just cottoning on to it. He was also the movie Olsen-banden ser rødt was best known in his lifetime. In overstepped the bounds of good a stylish pianist who relished the (The Olsen Gang sees red, 1976). that capacity, he would travel to humour. Both Beethoven and his instrument’s rapidly advancing Sweden and Austria as well as publisher Schlesinger liked and technology and was well placed Kuhlau’s career was characterised returning to his native Germany. On admired their Danish-German ac- to capitalise on the middle class by loose relationships with both the one such trip in 1825, Kuhlau had a quaintance, to whom they affection- fashion for having the instrument Royal Danish Theatre (he spent one well-documented encounter with his ately referred in correspondence as at home. His piano music can be season as its chorus master) and musical hero Ludwig van Beetho- ‘the cyclops’. divided into works intended for the Royal Court (with which he wan- ven, whose five piano concertos he Back in Copenhagen, life’s teaching or improving the technique gled his own semi-freelance posi tion had already premiered in Denmark. stresses caught up with Kuhlau. He of talented amateurs, and grand of ‘Court Chamber Musician’). His As described in Thayer’s The lost both his parents in 1830 and six works for accomplished pianists. life was similarly ill defined, chaotic Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, a months later, in February 1831, his Across the board, his best piano even, and he developed a voracious party including Beethoven and house burned to the ground, with music is melodically rich, explores appetite for alcohol and tobacco. In Kuhlau took a walk in the country- it all his unpublished manuscripts the full sonor ity of the instrument 1814, Kuhlau’s struggling parents side before stopping at a tavern to including that for a second piano and ranges in texture from the deli- and youngest sister moved from fill up on drink, retiring to Ludwig’s concerto. He never fully recov- cate to the imposing. Germany to live with him at his quarters to partake in some intel- ered from a night in the bitter cold house in Lyngby, north of Copen- lectual horseplay which included watching the blaze, which put him Beethoven’s influence is obvious hagen. The arrangement put a strain both composers writing out musical in hospital for three months having in Kuhlau’s Divertissement in on the composer’s finances, at canons. Kuhlau wrote a canon on aggra vated an existing chest ail- E-flat Major, Op. 37, published which point he started to churn out the name of Bach while Beethoven’s ment. He died in Copenhagen a little in 1822 but composed the year numerous works for rapid publica- took as its theme a version of his over a year later. before. The first and last move- tion, among them over a hundred companion’s name: ‘kühl, nicht lau’ ments of this through-composed 6 7 work can be considered an intro- Kuhlau’s three Sonatinas, Op. 20 ing the pianist to cross hands and 39-bar introduction full of Kuhlau’s duction and coda respectively. date from 1820 and were probably including a development section in favoured dotted and double-dotted A Beetho ven ian theme emerges in conceived for teaching. No. 1 in miniature. The Larghetto toys with rhythms that also features a twisting the variation-form second move- C Major is built simply but has its the repetition of melodic notes and weave of arpeggios which casts a ment. It is passed from high to low, own luminous charm and symmetri- chords while the finale, another spell over the music. tracked by accompanying features cal satisfaction. It distils some of polonaise, sees Kuhlau’s scale figu- The opening movement proper and given new incarnations in Kuhlau’s preferred methods down rations metamorphose into full-on starts with an Allegro in Beetho- different registers – beautifully so to their simplest form, such as rollercoasters. venian mould alternating thick, when, at 4’42, it stalks the dis- the transferral of the theme from dotted-rhythm chords with strings course in a low left hand that takes right to left hand in the opening Kuhlau composed a total of 22 of sixteenth notes. Those two its own unusual turn. movement. piano sonatas between 1809 and ideas dominate the movement. Kuhlau’s ‘Marcia’ is more than a No. 2 in G Major is more dra- 1831. The first, hisPiano Sonata Next comes a set of variations on a march.

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