You might think that
just over two hours of music for flutes
and nothing but flutes would be awfully
boring, but, no, it certainly is not.
We don’t mind listening to two hours
of piano music, or vocal music, or organ
music, or two full disks of the Bach
solo cello suites. And perhaps the point
is that the flute, or two flutes, are
capable of a great range of expression
and just as capable of holding our attention
as other instruments. Also this music
is fascinating, constantly new and full
of life and adventure. I assume these
are teaching pieces, or are at least
used as teaching pieces, and these excellent
flutists decided to make them available
to the public in this recording.
Kuhlau (not to be confused
with Kuhnau who wrote the Biblical
Sonatas for harpsichord) was born
in Hanover. At the age of seven he injured
his eye in a fall and lost the use of
it. His first flute lessons were with
his father who was a military musician.
He continued his study of flute and
piano in Brunswick and then studied
harmony with Schwenke in Hamburg. In
1810 he fled to Denmark to escape conscription
into the French army, becoming a Danish
citizen in 1813. When he found success
as a court composer he paid for his
parents and sister to join him in Copenhagen.
It is a matter of dispute whether or
not he played the flute professionally,
but he came to be called "The Beethoven
of the Flute." Although during
his life his operas were successful,
today he is best known for piano sonatas
and a piano concerto. In 1825 he visited
Vienna and participated in a witty exchange
of canons with Beethoven, who addressed
him as a "dear friend." A
number of his unpublished manuscripts
were consumed in a fire which destroyed
his home in 1830. Waiting out in the
cold in front of his burning house damaged
his health. He was also severely grief
stricken at the death of his parents
at about the same time, and he died
a year later.
I have been unable
to find any information as to the actual
dates of the individual compositions
within Kuhlau’s short lifetime. The
opus numbers may give a clue as to early
and late. But there is no obvious "early"
and "late" sense of style
to these various works even though the
composer lived at a time when tastes
were rapidly changing.
These performers are
true virtuose, and give us a
richly varied sound and show an excellent
sense of drama and lyrical phrase. The
recording captures the sound of the
flute very effectively. The solo works
are as ingenious as Bach’s works for
solo instruments at giving a sense of
counterpoint and harmony in a single
line but, of course, are much closer
to the Romantic in spirit.
Paul Shoemaker
Renee Siebert, flute 1; Laurel Zucker, flute
2 
