About this Piece

Evaluating his own music with a candor rarely displayed by late‑Romantic artists, the German composer Carl Reinecke once admitted, “I can’t disagree when people call me an epigone” (i.e., a mediocrity descended from a distinguished line). Posterity has not been disposed to quarrel with his estimate. Not one work in Reinecke’s enormous output (his catalog runs to 288 opus numbers) can, by any stretch of the imagination, be thought of as a repertoire standard. However, a few of the cadenzas he supplied for Classical‑period concertos are still occasionally used, and these have served to keep his name from vanishing altogether. Reinecke, in fact, produced more than 40 such cadenzas, the best known being those for Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp.

That deep reverence for the classics that prompted Reinecke’s cadenzas is also apparent—perhaps too apparent—in his original compositions. Reinecke regarded himself as the custodian of the great and rapidly disappearing Classical tradition. Like his somewhat younger and far more gifted contemporary Max Bruch, he staunchly resisted the influence of the Wagner-Liszt revolution, although he did not share Bruch’s personal animosity toward the avant‑gardists of the day. On the evidence of his scores, Reinecke particularly admired Mendelssohn—not only his forms, but his style of ornamentation and many of his characteristic melodic turns of phrase. Harmonically, however, Reinecke’s outlook was post-Mendelssohnian. Scholars find his music fluent, decorous, graceful, scrupulously crafted, and meticulously organized, with a patrician freedom from any suggestion of vulgarity. At least one modern commentator believes that these virtues, although somewhat pallid, nevertheless endow Reinecke’s best work with “a Brahmsian majesty and warmth.” Other writers consider that, because of his Classical preoccupations, even his finest scores leave to some degree an unpleasant aftertaste of academicism and aesthetic constriction.

Reinecke showed evidence of musical talent at an early age. By his mid‑teens he was a competent orchestral violinist, and before his 20th year he began touring northern Germany and Scandinavia as a pianist. Between 1846 and 1848, he served as court pianist to the King of Denmark. Although not a transcendent virtuoso, Reinecke was reputed to be an extremely reliable and finished player with an unusually wide‑ranging repertoire. Franz Liszt himself praised Reinecke’s “beautiful gentle legato and lyrical touch.”

During the 1850s, Reinecke held teaching and performing positions at Cologne, Barmen, and Breslau, and in 1860 he was appointed conductor of the celebrated Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, at the same time becoming professor of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. His relationships with both organizations proved long, harmonious, and fruitful. Reinecke maintained high standards of discipline with the orchestra and took an active interest in the administration of the Conservatory, where many first‑class improvements were added to the teaching staff at his instigation. Moreover, Reinecke’s own works were notably popular in their fidelity to the Mendelssohnian orientation, for by then, the Leipzig public’s traditional Mendelssohn worship had ossified into a closed‑minded conservatism.

In his last years, Reinecke gradually withdrew from public musical activities, retiring from conducting in 1895 and leaving the Conservatory in 1902. However, he continued to compose assiduously up to the time of his death.

Reinecke’s output includes six operas and operettas, three symphonies, numerous overtures, and a plethora of chamber works. He also produced four piano concertos, along with concertos for violin, cello, harp, and flute. Those for flute and harp are said to be the finest, one authority assessing the Flute Concerto as “a significant contribution to the genre.”

Written in 1908 and bearing the opus number 283, the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D major was Reinecke’s last work in concerto form. Cast in the traditional three movements, it calls for an essentially Classical, rather than Romantic, orchestra—winds in pairs, four horns, no trombones or tuba. While the atmosphere of the first movement (Allegro molto moderato) is basically one of serenity, there are moments of orchestral agitation and several animated solo flute episodes. The open‑ended first theme and the melodically symmetrical second theme, both of flowing character, are rather similar in mood, although the latter gains a certain wistfulness from its suggestions of modal harmony. A closing antiphonal theme for flute and staccato brasses introduces a playful note. The development section is terse and contrapuntal, and the recapitulation is highly compressed. The slow movement (Lento e mesto) features a dolorously insistent bass rhythm and a mournful flute melody that appears, at one point, in a flute/solo‑cello duet statement. The finale (Moderato) has a sprightly polonaise‑like rondo theme that alternates with more lyrical materials, some of them in a contrasting 9/8 meter. The concerto concludes with a brilliant “più moto” coda.

—Benjamin Folkman, courtesy of the New York Philharmonic