This album is part of a project to record all of Reicha's piano music, with the performer Henrik Löwenmark having collected almost all extant music not published in modern editions since 1999.
Composer Biography
Antoine Reicha, the composer, was orphaned at ten months old and fled to his paternal grandfather at age eleven before being taken in by his uncle Josef, a composer and principal cellist.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Reicha believed that the true merit of a performance lay in feeling and divining the composer's intentions, for which no signs exist in notation.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Reicha, unlike many contemporaries, did not use the piano as a vehicle for virtuosic display or employment, but rather as a field for experiment and pedagogical ideas.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Reicha's piano music is characterized by an "innocent mixture" of experimental, advanced, didactic, and simple elements, often avoiding the flashy styles popular at the time.
Compositional Technique
Reicha's piano compositions sometimes feature 'flaws' like strange part-writing or 'hollow' sounds, which may stem from his primary instrument being the flute rather than the piano.
Composer Biography
Reicha played flute in the electoral orchestra in Bonn alongside a fifteen-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven, a universally famous composer.
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