The Czech composer Antonin Rejcha (also Anton Reicha, 1770Â-1836) was famous as both an experimental composer and as a teacher and theorist. His Â"36 Fugues for PianoÂ" testify to this experimentalism; they can be seen as a type of Â"Well-Tempered Piano of the new agesÂ", basing the traditional Baroque fugue on radical new fundaments.The first edition of this unusual collection was produced in 1803 in Vienna by ReichaÂ's own publishing company Â"Au Magasin de lÂ'Imprimerie chimiqueÂ". It included both a dedication poem to Joseph Haydn and a comprehensive foreword in which Reicha identifies the characteristics of his compositional style. The second edition (Vienna 1805) included a short theoretical text Â"Ãœber das neue FugensystemÂ" (Â"On the new fugal systemÂ") in the form of a polemic, reacting to his critics, one of whom was Beethoven. Six fugues are based on the themes of other composers (Haydn, Bach, Mozart, Scarlatti, Frescobaldi, Handel). The musical text is a corrected reprint of the edition by Václav Jan Sýkora from 1973, which itself was based on the referred to edition from 1805 as well as on the later edition by Tobias Haslinger (Vienna, c. 1828).

Score and Parts

Reicha published a total of 24 wind quintets for the classical scoring of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon; Op. 88, No. 2 is one of the best-loved and most played. If it were possible to surpass Haydn in the composition of quartets and quintets, Reicha would have succeeded with these quintets, thus raved the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung on a performance of Reicha's quintets, it seems to me that it is impossible to unite more correctness and clarity with more inventiveness and originality. This work exudes inspiration and spirit from every note. In addition to the parts, we have also produced a handy study edition of the score.

Anton Reicha (1770-1836) is doubtlessly known to many music lovers as a friend of Haydn's and Beethoven's. Wind players know him as the outstanding composer of 24 published wind quintets. Curiously enough, the fact that Reicha also wrote inspiring works for the piano is not very well known, even today. Hopefully our edition of selected works will help to change this. It provides a cross-section of the different genres that Reicha cultivated: a sonata (op. 43), a set of variations (op. 57) as well as a fantasy (op. 61).

Publisher: Schott
Series: Schott
Pages: 64
Credits: (ed. Lebermann)
Composer(s): Antonín Josef Reicha
Arranger(s): Walter Lebermann

For two flutes.