Johann Ludwig Böhner: Serenade in F Major, Op. 9

Johann Ludwig Böhner

(8 Janaury 1787, Tottelstedt - 28 March 1860, Gotha).

German pianist, conductor and composer. He studied in Erfurt and with Spohr, then taught the piano and made concert tours. Winning praise for his Classical virtuoso piano pieces and orchestral works, he also anticipated Weber in his concert overtures and use of folk elements in opera.

He was the model for E.T.A. Hoffmann's 'Capellmeister Kreisler'.

 Serenade in F Major, Op. 9

I. Poco adagio 0:00
II. Vivace 3:14
III. Siciliano: Quasi andantino 8:54
IV. Menuetto: Allegro 15:35
V. Finale: Poco adagio - Vivace 21:11

Thuringian Philharmonic Orchestra Gotha-Suhl
Hermann Breuer, conductor

Johann Ludwig Böhner (1787 - 1860 ), described by his contemporaries as the "Thuringian Mozart", was a highly talented composer, a celebrated piano and organ virtuoso and a master of musical improvisation. Böhner was born in 1787 in Töttelstädt, Thuringia, which belonged to the Duchy of Gotha. As the son of the cantor and organist of his hometown, Johann Matthias Böhner, he came into contact with music as a child. During his high school years in Erfurt, he received composition lessons from Michael Gotthard Fischer . In 1797, at the age of ten, he composed music to Schiller's hymn "Ode To Joy ". From 1805 on, he worked in Gotha as a piano teacher and got to know Ludwig Spohr , whose compositional style influenced him audibly. Böhner had a considerable pianistic and compositional talent, which later earned him the sobriquet "The Thüringian Mozart". In the years between 1811 and 1814 he stayed mostly in Nuremberg. In this short time, most of his important works were composed, including three of the five highly acclaimed piano concertos, the Fantasia for Clarinet and Orchestra op. 21, and the Fantasia for Bassoon and Orchestra op. 1. After 1815 he toured large parts of southern Germany and Switzerland. He suffered a mental collapse in Hamburg in 1819. His not entirely unfounded plagiarism allegations against other composers (he accused, for example, Carl Maria von Weber , of having stolen the melody of the Virgin Wreath in Der Freischütz from his D major concerto) led him to the conviction that he had been cheated of his success. The remaining years of life Böhner spent alone, and destitute in Gotha. only on occasion did his abilities flare up, as they did in 1844, in his only Symphony in D minor Op. 130. The Gothaische Zeitung noted on March 29, 1860: "Last night, the composer Ludwig Böhner, who was once celebrated in the widest circles, died after a tumultuous life in a high but unfortunately joyless age."