Carl Reinecke
Encyclopedia
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
.
Biography
Reinecke was born in AltonaAltona, Hamburg
Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...
, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
; until 1864 the town was under Danish rule. He studied with his father, Johann Peter Rudolph Reinecke, a music teacher. Carl began to compose at the age of seven, and his first public appearance as a pianist was when he was twelve years old.
At the age of 19, he undertook his first concert tour in 1843, through Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. After a stay in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, where he studied under Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
and Liszt
Liszt
Liszt is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Franz Liszt , Hungarian composer and pianist* Adam Liszt , father of Franz Liszt* Anna Liszt , mother of Franz Liszt...
, Reinecke went on tour with Königslöw and Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski
Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski
Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski was a German violinist, conductor, and musicologist.-Life:Wasielewski was born on June 17, 1822 in the village of Gross, near Danzig as the eighth of eleven children of Henriette Christina Piwko and Josef Thaddäus von Wasielewski , a landholder and later Rector of...
(later Schumann's biographer), in North Germany and Denmark. In 1846, Reinecke was appointed Court Pianist for Christian VIII
Christian VIII of Denmark
Christian VIII , was king of Denmark from 1839 to 1848 and, as Christian Frederick, king of Norway in 1814. He was the eldest son of Hereditary Prince Frederick of Denmark and Norway and Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, born in 1786 at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen...
in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
. There he remained until 1848, when he resigned and went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Overall he wrote four concertos for his instrument (and many cadenza
Cadenza
In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
s for others' works, including a large set published as his Opus
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
87), as well as concertos for violin, cello, harp and flute. In the winter of 1850/51, Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz
Carl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...
reports attending weekly “musical evenings” in Paris where Reinecke was in attendance.
In 1851, Reinecke became a professor at the Cologne Conservatory. In ensuing years he was appointed musical director at Barmen
Barmen
Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which in 1929 with four other towns was merged with the city of Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. Barmen was the birth-place of Friedrich Engels and together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the...
, and became the academic, musical director and conductor of the Singakademie
Singakademie
A Singakademie - originally a phenomenon of the German-speaking realm - is a large mixed choral society, whose primary aims are to study large, significant choral works - mostly those of acknowledged masters; to train themselves with these works; and to cultivate social interaction to a high...
at Breslau.
In 1860, Reinecke was appointed director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the the oldest symphony orchestras in the world...
concerts in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, and professor of composition and piano at the Conservatorium. He led the orchestra for more than three decades, until 1895. He conducted premieres such as the full seven-movement version of Brahms's German Requiem
Ein deutsches Requiem
A German Requiem, To Words of the Holy Scriptures, Op. 45 by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, and a soprano and a baritone soloist, composed between 1865 and 1868. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work Brahms's longest...
(1869). In 1865 the Gewandhaus-Quartett premiered Brahms' piano quintet
Piano quintet
In European classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly piano, two violins, viola, and cello . Among the most frequently performed piano quintets are those by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák...
, and in 1892 his D major string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
.
Reinecke is best known for his flute sonata "Undine
Sonata Undine
Sonata Undine is a flute and piano sonata written by Carl Reinecke that is based on the novel Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. It is his opus 167, written in 1882.This sonata is normally associated with the Romantic genre...
", but he is also remembered as one of the most influential and versatile musicians of his time. He served as a teacher for 35 years, until his retirement in 1902. His students included Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
, Basil Harwood
Basil Harwood
Basil Harwood was an English organist and composer.-Life:Basil Harwood was born in Woodhouse, Gloucestershire on 11 April 1859. His mother died in 1867 when Basil was eight. His parents were Quakers but his elder sister Ada, on reaching 21 in 1867, converted to the Anglican Church...
, Christian Sinding
Christian Sinding
Christian August Sinding was a Norwegian composer.-Personal life:He was born in Kongsberg as a son of mine superindendent Matthias Wilhelm Sinding and Cecilie Marie Mejdell . He was a brother of the painter Otto Sinding and the sculptor Stephan Sinding...
, Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
, Constanta Erbiceanu, Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
, August Max Fiedler, Walter Niemann
Walter Niemann (composer)
Walter Rudolph Niemann was a German composer, arranger, and music critic.-Life:Born in Hamburg, Niemann was the son of composer and virtuoso pianist Rudolph Niemann . His uncle, Gustav Adolph Niemann was a violinist and important musical figure in Helsinki...
, Johan Svendsen
Johan Svendsen
Johan Severin Svendsen was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania , Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark....
, Richard Franck
Richard Franck
Richard Franck was a German pianist, composer and teacher. He was born in Cologne and was the son of the German composer, pianist and teacher Eduard Franck...
, Felix Weingartner
Felix Weingartner
Paul Felix von Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
, Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...
, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis , also known as M. K. Čiurlionis was a Lithuanian painter and composer. Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau and was representative of the fin de siècle epoch. During his short life he composed about 250 pieces of music and created about 300 paintings...
and Felix Fox
Felix Fox
Felix Fox was a German-born concert pianist and educator.Mr. Fox studied piano with Carl Reinecke in Leipzig, and Hungarian-French pianist Isidor Philipp in Paris, and studied music theory with Salomon Jadassohn. Fox graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Leipzig where he made his debut...
among many others.
After retirement from the conservatory, Reinecke devoted his time to composition, resulting in almost three hundred published works. He wrote several operas (none of which are performed today) including König Manfred. During this time, he frequently made concert tours to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and elsewhere. His pianoforte playing belonged to a school in which grace and neatness were characteristic, and at one time Reinecke was probably unrivalled as a Mozart player and an accompanist. At the age of 80, he recorded his playing on piano roll
Piano roll
A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. A piano roll is a continuous roll of paper with perforations punched into it. The peforations represent note control data...
for the Welte-Mignon
Welte-Mignon
M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte in 1832.-Overview:...
company, making him the earliest-born pianist to have his playing preserved in any format. He died at 85 in Leipzig.
Selected works
- König Manfred, comic opera, 1867
- Ein Abenteuer Händels, operetta, 1874
- Auf hohen Befehl, comic opera, 1886
- Der Gouverneur von Tours, comic opera, 1891
- Symphony No. 1 in A major, Op. 79, 1858
- Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 34, 1844
- Piano Quartet in light style, Op. 272, 1904
- Piano Quintet in A, Op. 83, 1866
- Cello Concerto in D minor, Op. 82, 1864
- Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 141, 1876
- Harp Concerto in E minor, Op. 182 (1884)
- Flute Concerto in D major, Op. 283 (1908)
- Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 72, 1860
- Piano Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 120, 1872
- Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 144, 1877
- Piano Concerto No. 4 in B minor, Op. 254, 1900
- Serenade for strings in G minor, Op. 242, around 1898
- Trio for piano, oboe and horn in A minor, Op. 188, 1886
- Trio for piano, clarinet and viola in A, Op. 264
- Trio for piano, clarinet and horn in B-flat, Op. 274, 1905
- Octet for winds in B-flat, Op. 216, 1892
- Sextet for flute, oboe, clarinet, 2 horns and bassoon in B-flat, Op. 271
- Five string quartets (Op. 16 in E-flat, 1843; Op. 30 in F, 1851; Op. 132 in C, 1874; Op. 211 in D major, 1890; and Op. 287)
- Organ Sonata, Op. 284
- Piano Sonata for the left hand, Op. 179, 1884
- String Trio in C minor, Op. 249
- Sonata for flute (Sonata Undine)Sonata UndineSonata Undine is a flute and piano sonata written by Carl Reinecke that is based on the novel Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. It is his opus 167, written in 1882.This sonata is normally associated with the Romantic genre...
, Op. 167, 1882 - Sonatas for violin, cello (three, in A minor, Op. 42, 1847-8; D major, Op. 89, 1866; and G major, Op. 238, recorded on cpo)
- Three light piano trios, Op. 159a
- Piano Trio, Op. 230
- Drei Fantasiestücke für Viola und Klavier, Op. 43 (Three fantasy pieces for viola and piano)
- Ballade, Op. 288 for flute
Media
External links
- Carl Reinecke String Trio Op.249, Piano Quartet Op.272, Piano Quintet Op.83 & Cello Sonata No.1 Op.42 Soundbites and discussion of works
- Discussion of Reinecke string quartet No 4 in D