Largo for C Flute or Alto Flute and Piano

Largo for C Flute or Alto Flute and Piano, by Ludwig van Beethoven, Published by Progress Press. Transcribed by Theobald Boehm.

Edited by Andrea Redcay Graves and Tammie Walker

Flutists universally recognize Theobald Boehm (1794-1881) as the creator of the modern concert flute in C, but few know that his favorite flute was the modern alto flute in G, which he created in 1850. In his treatise Flute and Flute Playing, Boehm writes:

My ideal of tone – large, sonorous, and powerful, admitting of every gradation from pianissimo to fortissimo – is still the tone of my silver flute in G. The effect I have repeatedly produced, when playing it, although now I am an old man of 78 years, is such that I only regret that I did not make this flute forty years ago.

To promote his alto flute on concert tours, he arranged twenty-three pieces for alto flute in various chamber settings from the music of composers including Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini, and Weber. These arrangements were completed ca. 1855, the same year Boehm sold his first alto flute.

—Andrea Redcay Graves
Editor
Publisher’s note: Progress Press is proud to introduce this lovely arrangement in two formats, one for the alto flute, as Boehm intended, and the other for the C Flute, recognizing that many flutists who would like to explore the beauty of this Beethoven transcription may not have access to an alto flute.

*Includes solo parts for both alto flute and C flute