Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) - Incidental Music from ’Elverhøj’ (1828)

Tillykke med fødselsdagen Friedrich Kuhlau! 📯👑 Composer: Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) Work: Incidental Music from ’Elverhøj’ (1828) Performers: Royal Danish Orchestra; Johan Hye-Knudsen (1896-1975, conductor) Painting: Carle Vernet (1758-1836) - The Triumph of Aemilius Paulus (1789) HD image: Painting: Peter Copmann (1794-1850) - Portrait of the composer Friedrich Kuhlau (1832) HD image: Further info: Listen free: No available --- Friedrich (Daniel Rudolph) Kuhlau (Uelzen, 11 September 1786 - Copenhagen, 12 March 1832) Danish composer of German birth. He was the son of a poor military bandsman and moved with his family to Lüneburg about 1793. In 1796 he lost an eye in a childhood accident, and studied piano during his recovery. Later studied theory and composition with Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke, Kantor of Hamburg’s Catherinenkirche. He gave several piano recitals from 1804 and the same year his earliest known compositions were published. When Hamburg was invaded by Napoleon’s troops in 1810 he went to Copenhagen to avoid conscription into Napoleon’s army. There he began to earn his living as a piano teacher and composer, and in 1813 was appointed court chamber musician. That year he eventually became a Danish citizen. Following the success of his singspiel, The Robber’s Castle, he gained a high-paying position as a singing teacher at the Royal Theater in 1816. Kuhlau’s works between 1817 and 1820 failed to gain much prominence. His opera, The Magic Harp, was said to have failed due to a controversial libretto. In 1821 and 1825, he travelled to Vienna where he befriended Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven’s influence is evidential in Kuhlau’s later works such as his singspiel, Elverhøj or Elves’ Hill, a work widely regarded as a tribute to the Danish Monarchy and an inspiring piece from the Danish Golden Age. In 1828, he was awarded an honorary professorship. As a result of a fire that swept his house in 1831 he suffered a chest ailment from which he never recovered, and died the following year. Together with Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse he was the foremost representative of the late Classical and early Romantic periods in Denmark.