Reicha, Antoine

[jean]

Woke up far too early this morning, switched on Radio 3 hoping for something soporific, quite enchanted by the trio for horns at 3' 10" in.

Never heard of him before.

[Richard Barrett]

Never heard of him before.

More often known as Anton or Antonín... wrote a massive amount of chamber music, of which everything I've heard has struck me as interesting if not always memorable, although on a different level are his 36 Fugues for piano which stretch that form to its limits and sometimes beyond.

[Stanfordian]

Woke up far too early this morning, switched on Radio 3 hoping for something soporific, quite enchanted by the trio for horns at 3' 10" in.

Never heard of him before.

Hiya Jean,

He was a friend of Beethoven. I encounter his music from time to time but in truth rarely play it. There is a fine CD of 3 of his string quartets from the Guarneri Trio Prague on Supraphon.

[ahinton]

Fascinating composer - not only a friend but also an almost exact contemporary of Beethoven - in some ways arguably a kind of pre-Alkan in employing tried and trusted ideas and taking them to where many might not expect them to go.

[jean]

Thanks - I'll certainly look out for more of him!

[richardfinegold]

I had started a discussion about him on another forum, when there was a thread devoted to Contemporaries of Beethoven (that were eclipsed by him). So other participants gave some you tube links that were pretty attractive so you may want to start there.

[kea]

I keep looking for other things by Reicha that are as individual and memorable as the 36 Fugues (and some of the Practische Beispiele) but haven't found much. That said, the rest of his music is always of high quality, probably exceeding that of contemporaries such as Hummel or Dussek or Clementi, whose output tends to be more uneven.

[jean]

I had started a discussion about him on another forum, when there was a thread devoted to Contemporaries of Beethoven (that were eclipsed by him)...

Missed this at the time, and can't find it now.

[richardfinegold]

Missed this at the time, and can't find it now.

It wasn’t the BBC Radio 3 Forum, but a different site, sorry for the confusion. At any rate, I was trying to direct you to the Reicha you tube site, which I think you will find quite interesting.
The spelling of his first name has three variants, btw. I think he must have been one of those 18th Century Bohemian Composers whose publishers were attempting to make more palatable for the German, French and Italian markets.

[jean]

Not unlike Orlande de Lassus/Roland de Lassus/Orlando di Lasso/Orlandus Lassus/Orlande de Lattre/Roland de Lattre then!

[richardfinegold]

Not unlike Orlande de Lassus/Roland de Lassus/Orlando di Lasso/Orlandus Lassus/Orlande de Lattre/Roland de Lattre then!

all the same dude?