Beethoven’s letters show an extensive and prolonged correspondence with George Thomson, a keen amateur musician who had made it his task to collect and publish settings of folk songs, commissioning the likes of Pleyel, Koželuch and Haydn. The Opp.105 and 107 collections, written for piano with optional parts for flute or violin, are filled with delightfully decorative but virtuoso writing. This recording offers versions with improvisation and ornamentation by Patrick Gallois based on the performance practice of the early eighteenth century.

Patrick Gallois is one of our star performers, both as a conductor and flautist, and releases associated with his name always do well even in the most competitive areas of the catalogue. His duo with pianist Maria Prinz has been acclaimed for their recording of arrangements of Mozart Violin Sonatas (8.573033), with the American Record Guide hearing their performances as “ever beguiling! Balm for whatever in life has brought you down”, and the New York Concert Review remarking that “many flutists and fans of flute music will find great pleasure in this new addition to the repertoire.”

These Beethoven 'Variations on Folksongs' do not have a high profile when it comes to recordings, and the appearance of these at times astonishingly virtuoso collections on a single disc will be widely welcomed.