Carl Reinecke lived an unusually long life for his day. Or perhaps it is just the amount of incident crammed into that life that makes it seem so.
A musical prodigy who composed from the age of 7 and performed in public from the age of 12, Reinecke lived and worked in Copenhagen, Paris, Cologne, and Leipzig. He studied with Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Liszt. His concert tours took him throughout Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the British Isles.
He taught in Cologne, Breslau, and Leipzig. Among his pupils were Isaac Albéniz, Max Bruch, Ferruccio Busoni, Mikalojus Čiurlionis, Edvard Grieg, Leoš Janáček, Julius Röntgen, Christian Sinding, Charles Villiers Stanford, Johan Svendsen, and Felix Weingartner. In addition, he was music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for over three decades.
Somewhere along the way, he found time to compose – three hundred published works, including operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and instrumental pieces. When he was born, Beethoven and Schubert were still alive. Toward the end of his life, he was making piano rolls, the earliest born musician to have his artistry preserved in any format. Reinecke died in 1910 at the age of 85.
For having lived such a monumental life and having wielded such an enormous influence, Reinecke’s own compositions can seem so effortless – modest, even.
On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” we’ll enjoy his utterly charming Octet for Winds, Op. 216. Also on the program will be a performance of Beethoven’s “Three Marches for Piano Four Hands,” with the 87 year-old Mieczyslaw Horszowski and the 18 year-old Cecile Licad.
Age is just a number, at the legendary Marlboro Music Festival, this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
Carl Reinecke: He had the chops – mutton and otherwise