Antonín Rejcha
composer (1770–1836)
Antonín Rejcha became famous not only as a progressive composer of his time but also as a music theorist who influenced the development of European music with his activities in music theory and pedagogy.
Despite Rejcha's efforts to gain public’s attention mainly as an opera composer, chamber music remains fundamental in composer's activity. Especially impressive are the brass quintet works. Rejcha’s symphonic music remains neglected, nevertheless it ranks among the compositions that the composer himself valued most.
Until today we miss a complete list of Rejcha's works. The number of the symphonies he composed change constantly in a scientific research according to processing musical sources of that time. A significant part of the symphonies that we know are preserved only in manuscripts and many of them only in fragments, if they are not completely lost. Some compositions from the early period are at times being mistaken for his uncle Josef Rejcha's works.
Among symphonic works we have some evidence of approximately twenty symphonies. In Rejcha's lifetime only two symphonies were published: op. 41 a 42 published in a publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig in 1803. Part of the symphonic works stays unknown and they are known only from the references in Rejcha's biography or other sources of that time. The preserved fragments play an important role, such as Symfonies in C major or D major.
Titles for sale:
Ouverture in C major, op. 24
Symphony F major