Antoine Reicha

Composer and Flautist Anton Reicha (1770-1836)

Antoine (Joseph) Reicha was a flautist in his youth and an influential theorist.  A Bohemian-born naturalized French composer, he was born on February 26, 1770, in Prague, and died on May 28, 1836.
Today, he is best known for his substantial contribution to the wind quintet literature in his day, twenty-five works (written in Paris) which were played all over Europe.

Reicha claimed in his memoirs that his wind quintets filled a void: "At that time, there was a dearth not only of good classic music, but of any good music at all for wind instruments, simply because the composers knew little of their technique."


Today some of Reicha's wind quintets have joined the regular repertoire, and all have been recorded.

He wrote prolifically for other kinds of musical ensembles as well, including eight symphonies; seven operas; piano music including sonatas, two gigantic variation sets, and a set of thirty-six fugues; violin sonatas and piano trios; five quintets for wind and strings; 24 trios for three horns (Op.82, published in Paris, 1815); and many more string quartets.

Reicha's eight Vienna string quartets are amongst his most important works. Though largely ignored since Reicha's death, they were highly influential during his lifetime, including influences on the quartets of Beethoven and Schubert.


Video Credit:

Anton Reicha, (1815) by Claude-Marie-François Dien (1787-1865). Retrieved from en.wikepedia.org, under GNU Documention License.


Resource:

The Grove Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie. New Updated Edition.  London: Macmillan, 1994.

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