Reicha: Wind Quintets, Op. 88, No. 5 And Op. 91, No. 1

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Antonin Reicha (1770-1836)Wind Quintet in B flat major, Op. 88, No. 5 Wind Quintet in C major, Op. 91, No. 1The death of his father in 1771 left the ten-month oldAntonin Rejcha in the care of a mother who was unableto look after him properly. He ran away to his paternalgrandfather when he was eleven and then accepted theoffer of a home and education with his uncle Josef, ahighly respected cellist and the Konzertmeister at thecelebrated court of Oettingen-Wallerstein. Rejcha laterrecalled that the worst moment of this second lonelyjourney came when he had to feign eye trouble in orderto persuade a border guard to let him pass without anyproper documentation.During the next three years Antonin learned to playthe flute, violin and piano, and in 1785 joined theElector's orchestra in Bonn as a violinist and flautist.There could hardly have been a better opportunity, forthe Elector already employed the young Beethoven asan organist and viola player and the two youngmusicians immediately established a firm friendship.Both also had composition lessons with Christian Neefeand in 1792 were offered the chance to study withHaydn in Vienna. Beethoven accepted, but Rejcharemained in Bonn until 1794, when the city wasoccupied by Napoleon's troops and the Elector fled.Josef was too ill to travel but, fearing that his nephewwould be attracted by the revolutionary ideas of theFrench army, sent him to the relative safety ofHamburg. There Rejcha concentrated on composition,teaching and philosophy, but found that the dampclimate affected his health. He therefore moved to Parisin 1799 but soon decided that the political situationthere was too uncertain and after two years rejoinedBeethoven in the relative security of Vienna.An ardent champion of change, Rejcha developedhis own philosophy of music and aesthetics, arguingthat \old forms such as fugue could have a place inmodern music only if composers also challengedaccepted norms such as the need for bar-lines or forworks to start and end in the same key. He thendemonstrated some of these ideas in the PraktischeBeispiel, a set of 36 bizarre fugues for piano whichinclude unusual rhythms, time signatures and harmoniesand which he published in 1803. Before he could takehis ideas further, however, Napoleon's troops arrived inVienna and Rejcha returned to Paris. There hecontinued to publish theoretical treatises on aesthetics,but had to find another source of income and, afterchanging his name to Antoine Reicha, began to earn areputation as an effective and entertaining teacher. Hispupils included Berlioz, Liszt, Franck and Gounod, andhis reputation as a member of the French musicalestablishment was confirmed in 1818 by hisappointment to teach composition at the ParisConservatoire.Today Reicha is best known for his 25 quintets forflute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. This combinationof instruments had been used occasionally before andReicha first tried it in 1811 but then studied each of theinstruments in detail before