There will be listeners who have come across the Paris string quartets in the so-called quatuor cancertant manner, that is to say with a soloistic firstviolin part that turns the work into something of a chamber concerto. This is something more unusual; a set of quintets in which a cello is the concertante instrument with a string quartet in attendance. Written in Paris in the middle of the first decade of the nineteenth century, the heyday of the quatuor concertant, they are typical of the ingenious Reicha in his use of the unexpected. He was a clever composer, as his pupils Berlioz and Liszt (among many other famous men) discovered to their benefit. These pieces find him in a more relaxed mode: no quirky fugues here. The minuets have been dropped, accentuating the chamber concerto manner; but the style is closer to the intimacies of chamber music without the intellectual subtleties of Haydn or Beethoven. They are really for cellists with a curiosity about the byways of their repertory; but others could enjoy this easy-going, undemanding music, nicely played by a group clearly out for enjoyment, and well recorded too.

-- Gramophone [10/1993]

He has always stood in Beethoven's shadow, with whom he played in the Bonn Hofkapelle. Yet Anton Reicha is in no way inferior to the Viennese titan in creativity, and Beethoven himself held his colleague of the same age in high esteem. Reason enough to put together a special package for their 250th anniversary: three carefully produced CDs with Reicha's quintets for wind instrument and string quartet each, plus another with orchestral works, make up a pack of four of far more than just historical value. This is not least due to the outstanding artists: The Consortium Classicum around Spiritus Rector Dieter Klöcker is always a bank for high-quality chamber music discoveries, and Peter Gülke with his Symphony Orchestra Wuppertal shows once again his profound understanding of music. The fact that with Ida Biehler and Jean-Claude Gerard for Reicha's Sinfonia Concertante he is accompanied by two world-class soloists makes this re-release an exciting experience once again. Reicha's original spirit is evident not least in his virtuoso handling of form and convention. As a writer of music theoretical and pedagogical values, he was well aware of the expectations of the audience. All the more spectacular is the Overture in D Major: it is in 5/8 time from beginning to end and makes many a connoisseur smile... No wonder that later great names such as Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz and Charles Gounod queued up for lessons with him!

Classical Music

A full ten months older than Ludwig van Beethoven and a friend since their years together in Bonn, the Bohemian Antonín Reicha is to a certain extent a complementary addition to the revolutionary achievements of the "Titan". You can hear at every turn that he also had a pronounced tendency towards experimentation. This is seen mostly in his extremely "relaxed" treatment of established norms – a minuet where any dancer would immediately and hopelessly falter; variations with extremely contrasting means of expression; harmonic and melodic impudence; an often very subtle way of shifting phrases; and astonishing scoring – these are the characteristics of a man that shook the foundations of Paris and beyond.

While Joseph Haydn is almost universally acknowledged as the inventor of the string quartet, Antonín Reicha (1770–1836), a contemporary of Beethoven, is generally credited with being the inventor of the wind quintet, elevating it to a position of respect and prominence that would rival that of the string quartet. The quintets aside, there are many other works of Reicha that have disappeared from view in the century-and-a-half plus since his death. The son of a military Kapellmeister, Reicha faced an uncertain future following his father’s death in 1771. After some basic musical instruction, the boy exhibited a gift for music. Eventually his uncle took custody of him, relocating the boy to the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein, where he was adopted by his uncle, given a loving home environment and a broad-based education that included musical instruction with one of Reicha’s compatriots, Antonín Rössler, also known as Antonio Rosetti.

The environment at Oettingen-Wallerstein was one of the most artistically encouraging in Europe and provided young Antonín with instruction in German and French. The latter would serve the Bohemian well in the years to come. He later went to Bonn where he met the young Beethoven. The exceptional quality of the court wind players in Bonn awakened Reicha’s interest in the solo possibilities of winds, but there were more pressing matters. The political earthquake known as the French Revolution was also felt in Bonn, eventually resulting in Reicha’s resignation and relocation to Hamburg and then Paris in 1799. Here Reicha enjoyed long-term success and contact with famous wind virtuosos and professors at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. Reicha joined the faculty of the institution in 1818.

Even though Reicha enjoyed close associations with a number of leading wind virtuosos in Paris, he wrote for only a handful. Among these was the Estonian-born clarinetist Iwan Müller (1786–1854), whose playing had attracted attention continent-wide. Müller was preoccupied—perhaps obsessed is a better term—with furthering the technical capabilities of the instrument. Upon his arrival in Paris in 1809, Müller ignited a firestorm of controversy among clarinet players with his radical ideas, resulting in the establishment of the traditional camps of advocates and detractors. Müller was universally praised for his “beautiful tone, brilliant technique, elegant manner of articulation, as well as the fire of his performances.”

Among the major orchestrally accompanied works for winds that have survived are an incomplete concerto written in 1815 for Müller’s “new and improved” clarinet, which Reicha referred to as la clarinette perfectionnée. Intended to improve technical facility as well as tone production, this was a 12-key modified version of the six-keyed instrument used by Xavier Lefèvre. Unfortunately, the only manuscript source for this important early Romantic work is incomplete and a reconstruction was required for this recording. The second movement is missing, and for this recording Dieter Klöcker has substituted the central movement from the third of Müller’s seven concertos. In the esthetic sense, this works quite well, given what Klöcker terms “the stylistic proximity of this movement to Reicha, the contrasting key of E? and the movement’s weight.” While the entire clarinet part is notated for the finale, the score ends abruptly at measure 125, so further work had to be done in order to prepare this performing edition. The task was undertaken by Klöcker’s colleague, Eberhard Buschmann. Buschmann was already familiar with the style from his years as a member of Klöcker’s Consortium Classicum, but he further studied Reicha’s idiom and painstakingly filled in the blanks, completing the score for this recording.

The remaining works on this Orfeo release are of less stature, but nonetheless of great importance when developing the time line of the repertoire for each instrument. Reicha’s colleague at the Conservatoire, Frédéric Blasius (1758–1829), was a virtuoso clarinetist and also the dedicatee of the variations. Blasius chose to append an introduction to Dittersdorf’s theme and Reicha’s subsequent variations. The Introduction and Rondo for Horn and the Theme and Variations for Bassoon were also penned for Parisian virtuosos with whom Reicha was acquainted.

First, let me unequivocally state that none of these works are what anyone would term great music, but they are significant and important contributions to the repertoire for the instruments. Each composition demonstrates Reicha’s grasp of form, his knowledge of the capabilities of each instrument, and his ability to craft music of appropriate weight. The strongest of the pieces is the clarinet concerto. Even without the substitution of the Andante from one of Müller’s concertos for the missing or lost slow movement, the fragmented concerto emerges as an important document in the development of the clarinet as it fills a gap—albeit a narrowing one—between the Mozart concerto and those of Spohr and Weber. The variations elicit high marks from me as well; they are models of their kind, crafted with confidence, and posing what surely were formidable technical challenges for the original performers.

Dieter Klöcker and his soloist colleagues from Consortium Classicum are unquestionably first-class, technically and expressively. Klöcker receives top billing here since his performances occupy almost three-quarters of the release. He is—as always—in top form. Those unfamiliar with Klöcker’s performances may find the sound a bit unusual, but it is due in large part to the construction of his century-old Oehler clarinet, not to mention the use of a wooden mouthpiece and string to secure the reed thereto. Klöcker’s technique is—in a word—imposing; I sat spellbound and overcome by both the beautifully controlled sound he produces and his incredible agility. The enviable ease of execution by Klöcker and his colleagues is fused to an insightful understanding of the idiom and the music. The resultant performances are generous in energy and rhythmic impetus, and while the repertoire may lack the spark of genius found in Mozart’s works for wind instruments, the music will consistently and repeatedly reward the ear via Reicha’s art and these definitive performances.

Michael Carter, Fanfare Magazine

The Michael Thompson Wind Quintet, today known as The Michael Thompson Wind Ensemble, came into existence in 1992 when Barry Tuckwell announced that he was leaving the Wind Quintet that bore his name. The remaining instrumentalists unanimously turned to the finest horn soloist they knew to take his place, and Michael Thompson had no hesitation in accepting the invitation to head the illustrious group. The original Quintet, which brought together five of London's leading wind-players, was formed in 1969 and in the course of the next two decades performed in Russia, Australia, the Far East, Europe and the United States. The Ensemble today is of impeccable pedigree, each player a soloist in his own right. Michael Thompson himself is in great demand throughout the world as a teacher and, in addition to his post as horn professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, has given master classes in the United States, Japan and Australia. As soloist/director he has recorded Mozart's complete works for horn and orchestra with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta.

Following their critically acclaimed debut album, the Belfiato Quintet have gone back a century in time, to the "father of the wind quintet" Anton�n Rejcha's life was adventurous and turbulent indeed. When he was 10, he ran away from his Prague home, and would live in turn in Bonn, Hamburg and Vienna, before finally settling in Paris. He presented his first symphony at the tender age of 17. Rejcha became a friend of Beethoven's, who played the viola in the same orchestra, he made the acquaintance with Haydn, and his teachers included Salieri. A keen experimenter, he liked to write in quintuple time, was fascinated by Gypsy music with micro-intervals, playing with numbers and chords, polyrhythm, polytonality and counterpoint. Moreover, he was an accomplished theorist and a renowned teacher, also working as a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris. His students included Liszt, Berlioz, Franck and other distinguished composers. Rejcha was the first to write truly masterful wind quintets, making full use of the instruments' timbres and technical potential. Notwithstanding it's being challenging to perform, his music comes across as bright, airy and gracious. The Belfiato Quintet selected three - the most beautiful and most engrossing - of Rejcha's 24 wind quintets, which they have recorded at the acoustically exceptionable Rudolfinum hall in Prague. It would seem that the virtuoso and passionate musicians have found in Rejcha a kindred spirit.

The piano music of the Czech-born composer Antoine Reicha (1770–1836) – friend of Haydn and Beethoven, teacher of Berlioz, Liszt and Franck – has only recently begun to be discovered. He was an important influence on composers of the next generation but until the last few years his piano works remained almost completely unknown. Encompassing Baroque practices as well as looking forward to the twentieth century, they are full of harmonic and other surprises that show this liveliest of musical minds at work. In this fourth volume of his survey of Reicha’s piano music Henrik Löwenmark sandwiches a number of quixotic miniatures between two grand but idiosyncratic sonatas.

This set is offered at a special price: 10 CDs for the cost of 6.

The Italian Classical Consort brings Anton Reicha's works to life once again on this new release from Urania Records. Reicha was a Czech-born composer, later becoming a naturalized Frenchman. Reicha's output during his years in Vienna was prolific and included large cycles of works, some showcased on this new release.

Anton Reicha, originally born Antonín Rejcha in Prague, was a friend to both Haydn and Beethoven. While translating French for them, he became preoccupied with change, going so far as to advocate doing away with barlines in music. His radical ideas did not make their way into his woodwind quintets, which are inventive yet thoroughly rooted in late Classical and early Romantic harmony and rhythms. Reicha made this particular combination of instruments "his", and became renowned for his quintets, which rivaled the quartets of Haydn in popularity. The two works presented on this entertaining CD are the last numbers of two different sets--Op. 88 and Op. 91. Sprightly tunes and clever melodic invention abound in both, and the players are each given ample opportunity to shine in virtuoso displays, notably the clarinet and bassoon in the trio of the C minor Quintet's Menuetto and the horn in the Meneutto of the F major. But superb playing is required in every movement of these works, and the Michael Thompson Wind Quintet players are up to the task, turning in some outstanding solo turns and a lot of cohesive ensemble playing as well. The recorded sound is just right--intimate but not close up enough to catch the distracting clacking of keys. --Rad Bennett, ClassicsToday.com

REICHA: Wind Quintets, Op. 88, No. 4 and Op. 99, No. 6

REICHA: Wind Quintets, Op. 88, No. 2 and Op. 100, No. 5

Classical Music

The young Thalia Ensemble erupted into the public spotlight with their being chosen as winners at the prestigious biennial York Early Music International Young Artists Competition. Their debut release spotlights the compositions of Antoine Reicha. Regarded as a pre-eminent composer for winds, Reicha , a flautist had an uncanny gift of melding the various wind instruments into a rich sonic tapestry in his compositions and the Thalia Ensemble’s inspired and dynamic playing proves to be a perfect match with the lively Wind Quintets.

REVIEWS:

The name Antoine Reicha is one which has fairly comprehensively slipped between the floorboards of musical history, except for within one select circle of musicians, wind players. With them Reicha's wind music, and in particular his wind quintets, has remained current and provides a useful and engaging program filler. The present CD brings us two wind quintets and an Adagio for wind quartet and obbligato cor anglais all played on period instruments of the early 19th century. This final detail may seem relatively unimportant in these days of the ubiquity of period performances, but in this case it was a major factor in my enjoyment of the CD. While tuneful and accessible, Reicha's music is occasionally accused of blandness, but when the Thalia Ensemble moved into the more chromatic passages of these works the music became imbued with considerable individuality. As a flute player himself, Reicha writes beautifully for the flute, but what is perhaps most striking is his mastery of the wind quintet as an entity - perhaps not since Mozart and not until Nielsen did anyone write such accomplished chamber music for winds. 5 stars.

– Early Music Review

These are infectious works, intended not to provoke but simply to delight, and in these elegantly shaped performances they do just that.

– Gramophone