Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832)
Trio pour flûte en ré majeur, op. 13 n° 1
Trio pour flûte en sol mineur, op. 13 n° 2
Trio pour flûte en fa majeur, op. 13 n° 3
Trio pour flûte en mi mineur, op. 86 n° 1
Trio pour flûte en ré majeur, op. 86 n° 2
Trio pour flûte en mi bémol majeur, op. 86 n° 3
Trio pour flûte en si mineur, op. 90

Flute East Trio

Curieux ensemble que ces trios pour traversières du « Beethoven de la flûte » ! Malgré les honneurs qui suivirent son installation au Danemark, Kuhlau fut contraint par une vie personnelle très difficile de produire au kilomètre des compositions littéralement « alimentaires » : on en retrouve le style léger (classicisme de salon, virtuosité sans exagération, parfaite maîtrise des spécificités de l’instrument) dans les 3 œuvres de l’opus 13. Mais il avait aussi un grand talent, reconnu par ses pairs plus célèbres, et c’est ce qu’on entend dans le triptyque de l’opus 86, bien plus prospectif et intéressant. Le Flute East Trio, qui n’avait que quatre ans d’existence quand il se confronta à cet ensemble, avait encore les caractéristiques d’une formation destinée à briller dans les concours : qualité technique indiscutable mais rendu très lisse et un peu dépourvu d’âme, un cocktail qui lui permit d’y triompher. On le sent parfois bien emprunté, raide et peu imaginatif, dans l’opus 13 qui demande des trésors de musicalité pour intéresser. Mais dans l’opus 86 au contenu musical bien plus conséquent et focalisant l’attention, ses qualités techniques pures font merveille ! Le tout donne un disque mi-chèvre mi-chou, mais qui a le mérite d’enrichir une discographie quasi-désertique. (Olivier Eterradossi)

Lively charm in abundance from ‘the Beethoven of the flute’: chamber music from the ‘Danish Golden Age’ of the early 19th century in accomplished new recordings by a German-based trio of fine young musicians making their debut on Brilliant Classics. Born in Hamburg in 1786, the son of a military bandsman, Friedrich Kuhlau showed early musical promise and tooklessons with a student of CPE Bach. When Napoleon’s troops invaded Hamburg in 1810, the 24-year-old Kuhlau fled with his family to Copenhagen, and there he made his name as a pianist and composer to the royal court. Taking Danish citizenship in 1813, he worked in the vanguard of the country’s fast-moving cultural scene, enjoying huge success as a composer of operas and incidental music. However, his financial position remained precarious, and his prodigious output of chamber music was written not least to exploit and satisfy the market forcongenial music-making among the growing Danish bourgeoisie. Kuhlau was himself a flautist of modest accomplishment, but the popularity of salon culture in Denmark increased thedemand for flute and piano music - which were both fashionable at the time - to such an extent that Kuhlau complained, in a letter to his publisher in 1829, about having too many commissions. While a flautist of modest accomplishment himself, Kuhlau wrote with unfailing craft, sympathy and imagination for the instrument – his works are standard repertoire even today for countless students – and before their publication he submitted his new works for approval from the principal flautist of the Court Chapel’s orchestra. The seven trios recorded here display a surprising variety of texture and mood. Even the trio of Op.13 works from 1815 ranges from the Baroque manners of No.3’s Adagio to a much grander scale ofexpression in the slow introduction which opens the curtain on No.1 and on the set as a whole. There is a dashing, Mendelssohnian quality to both the melodies and the sunny disposition of the Op.86 set from 1827 which itself is set aside for a more intense, Beethovenian argument in the grand trio Op.90. In 2015 three Asian flautists founded the Flute East Trio at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. Their mission in both concert and studio performances is to bring together Asian and Western musical styles, exciting audiences and challenging the prejudice that three flutes have only limited power and expressiveness at their disposal.