Capriccio for Flute and Piano

Originally for violin and piano, this work by Danish composer Niels W. Gade has been transcribed for flute by András Adorján. It was written in 1878 for the leader of the Königlich Sächsische Hofkapelle in Dresden, but only published after the composer’s death. The Capriccio is not well known among violinists, but perhaps this transcription can be a welcome addition to the Romantic flute repertoire. There are two main themes. The first starts suddenly with a stark double octave E chord in the piano and the flute enters on the of-beat in dramatic fashion with a decoration of the dominant of A minor, the key in which the melody starts a few bars later. As one would expect of a violin piece, there are many jumps and arpeggio figures, but they are easily playable on the flute. The  tempo is Allegro moderato and the technical level is challenging, yet manageable. The writing is quite simple with some chromaticism, but mostly based around tonic and dominant relationships. Halfway through the first section, there is a tranquillo section which is more melodic, although still playful. The next theme is marked più tranquillo and explores the flute’s lower register with a cantabile character, longer note values and long phrases. The structure is similar to the Wieniawski Scherzo Tarantella, but somehow not quite as musically satisfying. The piece certainly has elements of technical fireworks (especially in the cadenza sections); it covers almost the whole range of the fute (from low B to top C#) and has some nice melodic passages, but one can see why this piece didn’t really get much attention from violinists when they have such a wealth of better virtuoso pieces to choose from. Having said that, it is always great to have more Romantic repertoire, even if it is borrowed from the violin!