Reinecke, Carl

Reinecke, Carl – Fest-Ouvertüre op. 218 for orchestra and men’s choir with the final chorus ‘An die Künstler’ by Friedrich Schiller (Piano reduction)

For more information about the piece read the preface to the full score:

During his lifetime, Carl Reinecke was a musical giant – as a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher – but today he has been largely forgotten and his works are rarely found in the repertoire. He was born in the same year as Anton Bruckner and was a contemporary of Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner. Reinecke toured Europe as a pianist and was conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig for 35 years. He taught composition and piano to a long list of students at the Leipzig Conservatory, including Max Bruch, Edvard Grieg, Ethel Smyth, Leos Janacek and Fanny Davies, to name but a few. At that time, Leipzig was considered a first-rate music centre and was a magnet for musicians from all over the world.

As a composer, Reinecke was a preserver, a conservative who had little new to offer musically. His compositional oeuvre comprises around 300 works, including four symphonies, four piano concertos, other solo concertos, chamber music, children’s operas and musical fairy tales, and numerous songs and piano pieces for children. (Reinecke was the father of nine children.)

In keeping with the style of the time, he also wrote five festival overtures – utility music for official occasions. These commissioned works were a popular genre, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, Bedřich Smetana, Albert Lortzing, Otto Nicolai and many others also contributed to this genre. …

> read more / weiterlesen …