Alexander Fesca: Piano Trio No.2, 5

Alexander Ernst Fesca (22 May 1820 in Karlsruhe, 22 February 1849 in Braunschweig) was a German composer and pianist.

Alexander Ernst Fesca was born in Karlsruhe on 22 May 1820, as the second of four sons of composer Friedrich Ernst Fesca (1789–1826) and his wife Charlotte (born Dingelstedt, daughter of the horn player Johann Heinrich Dingelstedt).

Fesca received his first lessons from his father and made his debut at the age of 11 as a pianist in his hometown. At the age of 14 he graduated in composition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. His teachers included August Wilhelm Bach (1796–1869), Wilhelm Taubert (1811–1891) and Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen (1778–1851).

In 1838, he returned to Karlsruhe. He got his first success with the operetta "Mariette" in the same year. Fesca was known during his short life mostly through his songs and piano pieces in which his talent is coupled with a certain musical lightness. This is probably also the reason why some music scholars deny "deeper level" and "artistic seriousness" of his works.

In 1841, his opera "The French in Spain" was staged with great success. In the same year, Prince Egon von Furstenberg appointed Fesca as Chamber Virtuoso. From 1842, he settled in Brunswick. In the local court theater on 25 July 1847 was premiered Fescas major work, five-act heroic-romantic opera "Il Trovatore" with a libretto by Frederick Schmetzer.

On 22 February 1849, Alexander Ernst Fesca, aged 28, died of lung disease in Braunschweig.

 

Piano Trio No.2 in E Minor, Op.12 (1843)

Trio Paian 00:00 Allegro 11:08 Adagio ma Non Tanto

17:58 Scherzo (Allegro Vivo - Uno Poco Lento) 22:05 Allegro Vivo - Adagio

 

Painting by Lucius Richard O'Brien.

Description by Edition Silvertrust: Fesca’s Piano Trio No.2 in e minor dates from 1843. Although Robert Schumann damned the work with faint praise in his Neue Zeischrift für Musik, his verdict was not shared by nearly everyone else, including the editor of Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, nor by performers nor by the concert-going public. For the better part of the next 50 years, it remained in the repertoire and was a popular program choice. The fetching main theme to the opening Allegro is full of promise and developed in a masterly way. Succeeding melodies are lyrical and appealing. The idyllic second movement, Adagio ma non tanto, is in the form of a Song Without Words, peaceful but beautiful. The Scherzo, allegro vivo which come next has the character of a folk dance, bright and lively. The finale, Allegro vivo, is an energetic and thrusting affair, full of forward motion.