Essential Reicha
Anton Reicha (1770–1836) was born Antonín Rejcha in Bohemia in the same year as Beethoven and became a specialist in woodwind chamber works and a leading theorist in Paris. His music combines the melodiousness of Haydn and Mozart with the sinewy energy of Beethoven, along with a strong streak of the counterpoint for which he was renowned as a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire.
Read more…Although his repeated operatic attempts were invariably failures, Reicha became the doyen of the foyer at the Théâtre Favart in Paris: his woodwind quintets were the main attraction there, helping it become the place to be seen. He viewed music as a science as well as mere entertainment, though, and through his professorship at the Paris Conservatoire he published a number of works demonstrating the state of the art of fugue in the early 19th century. Much loved by woodwind players, his music has nevertheless fallen from public favour, although his influence can be heard in the music of his most illustrious pupils: Berlioz, Liszt and Franck. He ranged widely across genres, from theatrical works to church music and from symphonies to didactic (but still pleasurable) piano works. Recent discoveries include a trio of "symphonies de salon" for large mixed ensembles – which sound rather like Beethoven's Septet writ large.