Friedrich Kuhlau - Piano Concerto (3/4) Adagio

Friedrich Daniel Rudolf Kuhlau (11 September 1786 -- 12 March 1832) was a German-Danish composer during the Classical and Romantic periods. He was a central figure of the Danish Golden Age.

Piano Concerto Op. 7 (1810)

2. Adagio

Felicja Blumental, piano and the Salzburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Theodore Guschlbauer

Publisher Info.:Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, n.d. (1812). Plate No. 1696.

He is immortalized in Danish cultural history through his music for Elverhøj, the first true work of Danish National Romanticism and a concealed tribute to the absolute monarchy. To this day it is Kuhlau's version of this melody which is the definitive arrangement.

During his lifetime, he was known primarily as a concert pianist and composer of Danish opera, but was responsible for introducing many of Beethoven's works, which he greatly admired, to Copenhagen audiences. Considering that his house burned down destroying all of his unpublished manuscripts, he was a prolific composer leaving more than 200 published works in most genres.

Alongside his dramatic works, Kuhlau wrote several compositions for flute and a large number of works for piano. Particularly his short pieces, sonatinas, for piano, enjoyed great popularity both in Denmark and abroad.

Beethoven, whom Kuhlau knew personally, exerted the greatest influence upon his music. Interestingly, few of Beethoven's contemporaries showed greater understanding or ability to assimilate what he was doing than Kuhlau. Certainly with regard to form, Kuhlau was clearly able to make sense and use what Beethoven was doing in his Middle Period.

Kuhlau's C major Piano Concerto, Op. 7 from 1810 displays a strong influence from Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, written 14 years earlier. The rhythmic motif and ascending scale passage from the opening two measures of Kuhlau's mimics nearly identically the opening of Beethoven's. Kuhlau's 3rd movement Rondo also has similar passages in homage to the earlier work.

In addition to the above mentioned piano concerto were a string quartet and several works for piano that included all the current genres of the day: sonatas, sonatinas, waltzes, rondos and variations. He also created several works for the strings with piano (three quartets and two quintets, and several violin sonatas), works of incidental music and several operas. However, his most-often recorded and played works are several piano sonatinas and numerous works for flute. It is because of these flute works that he was nicknamed "the Beethoven of the flute" during his lifetime.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• kuhlau
• piano
• concerto
• orchestra
• classical
• romantic
• denmark

[ggajdoss]

Thx so much for this beautiful piece! It's so charming..

[TatCoz]

Beethoven n'est pas très loin...

Beethoven is not far from...

[loupblanc26]

Thanks for these wonderful Friedrich Kuhlau's videos

[StradAmatiViolin]

This is gorgeous

[luzsorial]

I like very much this adagio.

Thank you for all your videos.

bartje11, greetings from France.

Luz