Sonoran WInds – Program Notes

Background

Anton Reicha was born in Prague, but his father, a town musician, died when he was an infant. Growing up in poverty, with no prospects for an education, he ran away from home at age 10 or 11, making the sixty-mile journey to the home of his grandparents. They quickly sent him to live with his uncle Josef in Germany, a cellist. Young Anton learned piano, violin, and flute from his uncle, and both German and French from his aunt. In 1785, Josef Reicha moved his family to Bonn, where he became the director of music at the court of the Elector, and hired his nephew to play flute in the court orchestra. (While playing in the orchestra, Reicha struck up a lifelong friendship with another teenage Bonn musician, Ludwig van Beethoven.) Reicha continued to work in Bonn—primarily as a flutist, but also producing his first compositions—until 1794, when Napoleon conquered the city and he fled to Hamburg. While there, Reicha vowed to give up performing in favor of composition. After a few frustrating years trying to get his operas performed in Hamburg, he moved to Paris in 1799. He met with a bit more success there with instrumental works, but still hoping for operatic success, he moved to Vienna in 1801. In Vienna, he earned a reputation as an intellectual, and as a successful composer of chamber music…though not as a composer of opera. Reicha made his final move, back to Paris, in 1808 and remained there for the rest of his life, eventually becoming a professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory. (And if you’re curious…while he eventually wrote a book on how to write operas, the three operas Reicha would eventually put on the stage in Paris were all unsuccessful.)

Possibly the most significant and long-lasting of his accomplishments was that Reicha played a fundamental role in establishing the now-standard wind quintet of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. Though a few composers had written music this combination in the 1790s and 1800s, it was the 24 wind quintets that Reicha published between 1817-1820—by far his most enduringly popular works—and the nine quintets by Franz Danzi that appeared in 1819-1824 (closely modelled on Reicha’s) that truly popularized the ensemble.

What You’ll Hear

The Wind Quintet, Op. 88, No. 2 comes from his first set of six quintets, published in Paris in 1817. The first movement opens with a tiny introduction (Largo), before a bassoon solo (Allegro moderato) begins a first group of themes, carried at first by the clarinet. A dramatic unison statement opens a second group of themes. Though this movement has the outlines of sonata form, there is no real development section: instead Reicha introduces a new idea, in a distinctly military style, and presents a pair of variations. At the end, the themes of the opening section return in the opposite order and in a varied form. The second movement is a light, fast-paced Menuetto. There are two contrasting trios played in alternation with this music, the first led by the clarinet and the second by flute and oboe. The final statement of the Menuetto is varied, including a cute little fugue. The third movement (Poco andante grazioso) is a rondo, with its main theme a graceful oboe melody. This alternates with a few contrasting ideas: a dramatic variant led by the flute, a fugue, and what sounds like a tragic opera aria from the flute. The horn leads the final statement of the main theme. The rollicking final movement (Allegretto) is in a more conventional sonata form with a dancelike main theme; the second theme, played by the clarinet and horn is just as exuberant. Here there is a fairly extensive development, beginning in minor and closing with solos for bassoon and clarinet. After a return of the opening material there is a brief pause before it ends with a brilliant coda.