Kuhlau, F - Grand Duo - Flute and Piano

Edited by András Adorján
Duration: 21 min.

Published: 2013

Friedrich Kuhlau’s (1768‐1832) Grand Duo, originally composed for violin and piano, is a masterpiece in his chamber music oeuvre. It soon became so popular, that within a short time after its composition it was arranged for the flute by the French flautist Paul Hippolyte Camus (1796-1869). When Kuhlau heard  about Camus’ great interest in his music, he was so pleased, that he proposed to write a new flute sonata and dedicate it to him! A plan, which unfortunately never came to fruition.

Friedrich Daniel Rudolf Kuhlau (11 September 1786 – 12 March 1832) was a German-born Danish composer during the Classical and Romantic periods. He was a central figure of the Danish Golden Age and is immortalized in Danish cultural history through his music for Elves' Hill, the first true work of Danish National Romanticism and a concealed tribute to the absolute monarchy. To this day it is his version of this melody which is the definitive arrangement.  

During his lifetime, Kuhlau 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 Considering that his house burned down destroying all of his unpublished manuscripts, he was a prolific composer leaving more than 200 published works in most genres.