Reinecke, Carl

Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke
(b. Altona, 23 June 1824 — d. Leipzig, 10 March 1910

Serenade for String Orchestra in G minor Op. 242

Preface
The conductor, pianist and composer Carl Reinecke is perhaps best remembered as the longest-serving music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, a position he held from 1860 until 1895. A highly respected figure in the Leipzig musical scene during these years and beyond, Reinecke developed a reputation as a passionate advocate of the music of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and later Brahms. He was also greatly respected as a virtuoso pianist (his first Leipzig appearance had taken place in 1843, when Felix Mendelssohn had arranged for him to appear as the soloist in Mendelssohn’s Serenade und Allegro giojoso Op. 43 at the Gewandhaus), and a noted interpreter of the piano works of Mozart.

Reinecke was born in Altona, in North Germany, and received his early musical education from his father, J.P. Rudolf Reinecke (1795-1883), who was himself a music theorist. Following a European tour in 1845, Reinecke took up the post of court pianist in Copenhagen, where he gave regular solo recitals. He subsequently came to befriend many noted musicians of the day, including Mendelssohn and the Schumanns in Leipzig, Liszt in Weimar, and Hiller in Cologne (where he taught for several years in the early 1850s). Following a five-year stint as a conductor and musical director in Barmen and Breslau, he then moved to Leipzig to join the staff of the Conservatoire in 1860, and took over the directorship of the Gewandhaus from Julius Rietz in the same year.

It is perhaps not surprising, given his support of the so-called ‘Conservative’ school of composition, that Reinecke’s own works are heavily indebted to the most famous composers of this school – Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms. He was a prolific composer, issuing over 280 numbered works during his lifetime in addition to producing arrangements and transcriptions of works by Gluck, Schubert, Schumann and Gade;1 providing cadenzas for concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Weber; and contributing to the collected editions of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin.2 He wrote books and articles on a range of important musicians from Haydn to Weber, and studies of particular works by Mozart and Beethoven.3 Finally, he was a formidably influential professor at the Conservatoire, where he taught from 1860-1902.4 The long list of his notable pupils includes Isaac Albéniz, Max Bruch, Ferruccio Busoni, Fanny Davies, Edvard Grieg, Georg Henschel, Hans Huber, Leoš Janáček, Robert Kajanus, Hugo Riemann, Julius Röntgen, Ernst Rudorff, Ethel Smyth, Charles Villers Stanford, Arthur Sullivan, Martin Wegelius and Felix Weingartner.5
The Serenade for Strings Op. 242 is one of nine serenades within Reinecke’s output, and the last to be composed.6 It was completed by the early autumn of 1898 and published in September or October.7 The Serenade received a ringing endorsement from Arthur Nikisch (who had taken over the conductorship of the Gewandhaus from Reinecke) upon its first mention in Signale, and he promised to conduct the premiere by December at the latest – a promise he kept, leading the first performance at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 10 November 1898. …

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