This CD ends with an anecdote, as a side effect. Yet that anecdote is the decisive link that keeps the program components together. The composers, Beethoven and , after all, seem to have little in common. Yet they met once, during a cheerful gathering of musicians on a warm summer evening. Kuhlau then challenged his colleagues to improvise a canon, based on the (German) note names BACH. Beethoven
… then improvised a three-part canon, which he promptly forgot afterwards because of the abundant champagne. The next morning he sent Kuhlau a note containing a newly developed canon. This canon, entitled Kühl, Nicht Lau (a reference to Kuhlau's name) is thus performed last here. The CD opens with Beethoven's Serenade op.41 (version for flute and piano). It is light-hearted, unpretentious music, which is nevertheless very thoughtfully played by the musicians. Most intriguing, however, is Kuhlau's large-scale Flute Sonata, precisely because romance has yielded so few flute sonatas. Either way it is pleasant music, which is rather on and recalls Beethoven. (HJ)more
