Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (23 June 182410 March 1910) was a German
composer,
conductor, and
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
in the mid-
Romantic era
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
.
Biography
Reinecke was born in what is today the
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
district of
Altona; technically he was born a Dane, as until 1864 the town was under
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
rule. He received all his musical instruction from his father, (Johann Peter) Rudolf Reinecke (22 November 179514 August 1883), a music teacher and writer on musical subjects.
Carl first devoted himself to violin-playing, but later on turned his attention to the piano.
He 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 as a pianist
in 1843, through Denmark and Sweden, after which he lived for a long time in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
,
where he studied under
Felix Mendelssohn,
Robert Schumann and
Franz Liszt; he entered into friendly relations with the former two. After the stay in Leipzig, Reinecke went on tour with
Königslöw and
Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski (later Schumann's biographer), in North Germany and Denmark. In 1846, Reinecke was appointed Court Pianist for
Christian VIII in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
. There he remained until 1848, when he resigned and went to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
.
Overall he wrote four concertos for his instrument (and many
cadenzas for others' works, including a large set published as his
Opus
''Opus'' (pl. ''opera'') is a Latin word meaning "work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (pl.).
Opus or OPUS may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) publicatio ...
87), as well as concertos for violin, cello, harp and flute. In the winter of 1850/51,
Carl Schurz reports attending weekly "musical evenings" in Paris where Reinecke was in attendance.
In 1851, Reinecke became a professor at the
Cologne Conservatory
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...
. In ensuing years he was appointed musical director in
Barmen, and became the academic, musical director and conductor of the
Singakademie
A Singakademie - originally a phenomenon of the German-speaking realm - is a large mixed choral society
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifical ...
at
Breslau.
In 1860, Reinecke was appointed director of the
Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...
concerts in Leipzig, 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
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
's ''
A German Requiem'' (1869). In 1865 the Gewandhaus-Quartett premiered his
piano quintet
In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a pian ...
, and in 1892 his D major
string quartet.
Reinecke is best known for his flute sonata "
Undine
Undines (; also ondines) are a category of elemental beings associated with water, stemming from the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Later writers developed the undine into a water nymph in its own right, and it continues to live in modern ...
", 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 Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...
,
Basil Harwood,
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the ...
,
Christian Sinding,
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European f ...
,
Constanta Erbiceanu,
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his conte ...
,
August Max Fiedler,
Walter Niemann,
Johan Svendsen
Johan Severin Svendsen (30 September 184014 June 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Svendsen's output includes two symphonies, a violin ...
,
Richard Franck,
Felix Weingartner
Paul Felix Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg (2 June 1863 – 7 May 1942) was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist.
Life and career
Weingartner was born in Zara, Dalmatia, Austria-Hungary (now Zadar, Croatia), to Austrian parents. ...
,
Max Bruch
Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a prominent staple of the standard ...
,
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis ( pl, Mikołaj Konstanty Czurlanis – ) was a Lithuanian painter, composer and writer.
Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau, and was representative of the fin de siècle epoch. He has been ...
,
Anna Diller Starbuck Anna Maria Diller Starbuck (August 29, 1868 – February 12, 1929) was a composer, music educator, organist, and pianist. She was one of the first two women to attend Harvard University.
Starbuck was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Anna Margar ...
,
Ernest Hutcheson
Ernest Hutcheson (20 July 1871 – 9 February 1951) was an Australian pianist, composer and teacher.
Biography
Hutcheson was born in Melbourne, and toured there as a child prodigy at the age of five. He later travelled to Leipzig and entered ...
,
Felix Fox,
August Winding,
Elisabeth Wintzer,
Mykola Lysenko
Mykola Vitaliyovych Lysenko ( uk, Мико́ла Віта́лійович Ли́сенко; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a List of Ukrainian composers, Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic mus ...
, and 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 is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and elsewhere. His piano playing belonged to a school in which grace and neatness were characteristic, and at one time he was probably unrivaled as a Mozart player and an accompanist.
In 1904 at the age of 80, he made recordings of seven works playing on
piano roll for the
Welte-Mignon
M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte (1807–1880) in 1832.
Overview
From 1832 until 1932, the firm produced mechanical musi ...
company, making him the earliest-born pianist to have his playing preserved in any format. He subsequently made a further 14 for the Aeolian Company's "Autograph Metrostyle" piano roll visual marking system and an additional 20 for the Hupfeld DEA reproducing piano roll system.
Reinecke died in Leipzig at age 85.
Works
![Reinecke (young)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Reinecke_%28young%29.jpg)
* ''
König Manfred'', grand romantic opera, 1866, staged 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. 134, 1874
* Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 227, 1895
* 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 A flute concerto is a concerto for solo flute and instrumental ensemble, customarily the orchestra. Such works have been written from the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day. Some major compose ...
in D major, Op. 283 (1908)
* Ballade for flute and orchestra in D minor, Op. 288 (1908) (his last opus number)
* 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''), Op. 167, 1882
* Sonatas for cello and piano (three, in A minor, Op. 42, 1847-8; D major, Op. 89, 1866; and G major, Op. 238, 1897, 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)
Media
Notes
References
Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke Page- includes a detailed worklist
*
External links
*
*
Soundbites and discussion of works
*
ttp://intimatemusic.blogspot.com/2010/10/who-on-earth-is-reinecke.html Discussion of Reinecke string quartet No 4 in Dbr>
The Passing of Carl Reinicke from th
Recordings
The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation(ARC-106, Archiphon)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reinecke, Carl
1824 births
1910 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century classical pianists
19th-century German composers
19th-century conductors (music)
20th-century classical composers
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century German conductors (music)
20th-century German male musicians
20th-century German composers
Composers for harp
German classical pianists
German male classical composers
German male conductors (music)
German male pianists
German opera composers
German Romantic composers
Male classical pianists
Male opera composers
People from Altona, Hamburg
Musicians from Leipzig
Pupils of Felix Mendelssohn
Pupils of Franz Liszt
Pupils of Robert Schumann
University of Music and Theatre Leipzig faculty