Josef Rejcha (Reicha): Concerto for Cello with String Orchestra in E Major

 

Josef Rejcha (Reicha)

 (12 February 1752 – 5 March 1795) was a Czech cellist, composer and conductor.

He was the uncle of composer and music theorist Anton Reicha.

 Concerto for Cello with String Orchestra in E Major

Marek Jerie (cello), Chamber String Orchestra of State Philharmonic, Brno, Jiří Bělohlávek (conductor)
I. Allegro – 00:00
II. Andante poco adagio – 12:07
III. Finale. Allegro – 18:35

 

Josef Rejcha is less well known than his younger nephew Antonin Rejcha (1770-1836), an internationally recognized theorethician, teacher and composer; Josef Rejcha’ works have only recently begun to be rediscovered.
The Rejchas were a Czech peasant clan settled in Southwestern Bohemia since the 16th century. Josef Rejcha went to Prague to study the cello under J.Werner. From 1774 he played with the Oettingen-Wallerstein Orchestra (Swabia). The violinist Anton Janitsch also played in this Kapelle, and Reicha went on several concert tours with him, travelling to Frankfurt, Gotha, Leipzig and Vienna among other places. Reicha and Janitsch were guests of Leopold Mozart when they went to Salzburg to give a concert in 1778. In January 1778 Leopold Mozart wrote to his son of Rejcha’s concert in Salzburg: ‚The concerto which Rejcha played was by himself; a really good one, new ideas, and much is your vein’.
In 1785 Josef was made director of the Hofkapelle in Bonn by Maximilian Francis of Austria, Elector of Cologne; the whole family moved to Bonn. Anton became a member of the Hofkapelle through his uncle. Other members included the young Beethoven, who played the viola and the organ, and Nikolaus Simrock, founder of the Simrock music publishing firm, who played the horn in the orchestra. Simrock would later publish Josef's works. In 1789 Josef became director of the orchestra of the new theater, Bonner Nationaltheater. Unfortunately, his musical career was cut short in 1791, when he contracted gout. He died four years later in Bonn.
Reicha wrote music for orchestra and chamber ensembles of different kinds. His works include symphonies, various concertos including ten for cello, twelve partitas for wind instruments and miscellaneous other works. Most of Reicha's compositions were completed in Wallerstein, before his Bonn years. His writing for strings and cello particularly is markedly virtuosic, reflecting his own skill. Music scholar Ludwig Schiedermair in 'Der junge Beethoven' (Leipzig, 1925) gave specific examples taken from Reicha's partitas and symphonies and has proven that these works influenced Beethoven. Other important admirers of Reicha included Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn.