The Danish composer Johannes Frederik Fröhlich (1806 - 1860) comes from a German family of musicians who emigrated to Copenhagen. He started playing the violin at a very early age to support his father, who appeared as a minstrel at dance events. He received solid piano, violin and flute lessons from his sister's husband, so that he appeared as a flutist at the age of 6 and with a violin concerto by Spohr at the age of 16.
Fröhlich belonged to the generation of the golden age of Denmark and caused a general sensation at the age of 16 with his string quartet op.
Over the next 10 years, many of his great works, influenced by Beethoven and Cherubini, were written, which received general recognition, including probably his three-movement Flute Sonata in A minor, which has survived in an undated form .
As a member of the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, he experienced his climax as a composer of ballets in the years 1835-45, the performances of which he himself directed as a holder of the title of concertmaster.
In the end, Fröhlich's life was tragic, as an illness caused by a fall suddenly prevented him from fully developing his abilities in the middle of his fertile phase and he withdrew from the public domain not even forty years old, soon gave up composing and died lonely in 1860. He is said not to have left his apartment in the last years of his life.
The source of this first edition of Fröhlich's flute sonata was a copy that is kept in the royal library in Copenhagen. A few errors in the copy have been tacitly corrected here.
