A wonderful salon number in a kind of gypsy style by Ernst Krähmer.
The works of Joseph Ernst Krähmer show us a previously undiscovered side to the recorder’s nature; that of a virtuoso romantic instrument. Krähmer was highly regarded in his time as the world’s leading player of the csakan. This is a form of keyed recorder in A flat, which had its origins in Hungarian folk music. The csakan was first introduced to Vienna by Anton Heberle who claimed to be the inventor of the instrument. However it was in the hands of Krähmer that the instrument achieved wide recognition and developed its own distinctive repertoire. The Hungarian Rondo, published in 1830 by Diabelli of Vienna, is an outstanding salon piece which draws on the folk origins of the csakan.
The present edition of this wonderful salon number is particularly useful in providing us with original material for the sadly underused combination of recorder and guitar (often used as an alternative to the piano in the 19th century).
(Piers Adams – May 1990)
