rondo from Beethoven duo No 2

Here comes a new chamber music score we've prepared for cello (grade 7+) and flute (hopeless, i.e. me). It's the third movement of the second duet from Beethoven's three duets which I think were originally written for clarinet and bassoon.

PS (July 2015): We've now performed this at a street party and made a tentative recording - not good enough for sharing yet but getting there. Meanwhile, here is a clarinet/cello duo playing the piece exactly twice as fast as we do (as a listener I prefer our speed, it allows me to actually understand what's going on in the music).

Beethoven rondo

Moving on from first movement of the Beethoven Duo no. 1, we're now trying to play the third movement of the same piece, which is actually a little bit easier.

Here's the score:

As of 2021, the Flash view of the score disappeared, but this link is working.

This is mainly adapted from the Kalmus edition for violin and viola. A slightly different version is included in the duets for violin and cello from Editio Musica Budapest.

PS: Note that I added the first bar just to count me in and allow me time to get my hand back to the flute after pressing start.

I miss the misery

I think I should follow up that Beethoven post with a rock video. Like Daniel Barenboim said (at least in the Hilary & Jackie movie) after jamming over the riff of You really got me: "That's how you should play Beethoven."

Anyhow, here's the new Halestorm video, enjoy:

Beethoven for cello and flute

We're currently trying to play the first movement of Beethoven's duet No. 1 (originally written for clarinet and bassoon, but we're adapting an adaptation for violin and viola). Here's the score I've prepared - all the notes are there now (I hope), but dynamics aren't quite complete yet (requires Flash -but I can email PDF file on request):

As of 2021, the Flash thing no longer works at least on my computer, but this link should take you to the score, and you can look at it without being registered with noteflight.

If you click play above, you'll get a computer-sound version - but here is how it should sound like when it's played by proper musicians.

PS: an amazing and growing list of repertoire for cello and flute is here.

PPS: We played this at the Oxford Music Festival in January 2013. The adjudicator used words like "brave" and "challenging" a lot, but we made it to the end, so I count that as a success. We're now moving on to the third movement of the same piece, which appears to be a little bit easier (hoping I can get my head round the triplets). After writing up around 40 bars, I realised that a version of Movt. 2 and 3 playable with our instruments is actually published in the book:

Duets for Violin and Violoncello for Beginners, Vol 2
(Arpad Pejtsik & Lajos Vigh, eds.)
Editio Musica Budapest Z. 14062

so we'll work with that at the moment, maybe finish the draft on noteflight later.

Beethoven duo

one of our current chamber music projects is the Duet no. 1 by Beethoven (originally written for clarinet and bassoon). Maybe if I practice hard for a year I can learn to play it at half the speed. Anyhow here is what the first movement should sound like