Ignaz Lachner

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Ignaz Lachner was a German composer and conductor.

Ignaz Lachner was born into a musical family on September 17, 1807 in Rain am Lech. He was the second of the three famous Lachner brothers. Lachner's brothers Franz and Vinzenz, were also composers. His older brother Franz was the best known, having heavily traded on his youthful friendship with Franz Schubert, certainly more than Ignaz who also knew Schubert. Ignaz was taught (as were the others) organ, piano and violin. Upon the latter instrument, he was somewhat of a prodigy, but despite this, his father insisted he become a teacher. After his father’s death, he studied violin with Bernhard Molique, a violin virtuoso and then joined his brother Franz in Vienna where he too befriended and was influenced by Schubert, not to mention Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

In 1826, he became organist at the Reformed Church in Vienna and then a member of the orchestra at the Hofoperntheater. He was appointed a Music Director in Stuttgart in 1831 and soon thereafter in Munich. From 1853, Lachner served as a Kapellmeister in Hamburg and moved into the same position again in 1861 at the Stadttheater in Frankfurt, from which he retired in 1875. He died on February 25, 1895, in Hanover.

Though primarily known as a conductor, Lachner composed a considerable amount of music in nearly every genre. Among his best known and most successful compositions was his Alpine Scenes, Das letzte Fensterln although critics, such as Wilhelm Altmann, today generally consider his chamber music to be his best work. Of these, his six trios for the unusual combination of violin, viola and piano were among the best ever written for this combination and his seven string quartets achieved considerable popularity in their time by virtue of their fetching melodies and effective harmonies. Several of the quartets and all of the piano trios have been recorded.

[edit] Chamber Music

String Quartet No.1 in F Major, Op.43
String Quartet No.2 in G Major, Op.51
String Quartet No.3 in C Major, Op.54
String Quartet No.4 in A Major, Op.74
String Quartet No.5 in G Major, Op.104
String Quartet No.6 in a minor, Op.105
String Quartet No.7 in B Flat Major, Op. Post.
String Quartet for 3 Violins & Viola in C Major, Op.106
String Quartet for 4 Violins in G Major, Op.107
Trio No.1 for Violin, Viola & Piano in B Flat Major, Op.27
Trio No.2 for Violin, Viola & Piano in G Major, Op.45
Trio No.3 for Violin, Viola & Piano in D Major, Op.58
Trio No.4 for Violin, Viola & Piano in d minor, Op.89
Trio No.5 for Violin, Viola & Piano in E Flat Major, Op.102
Trio No.6 for Violin, Viola & Piano in C Major, Op.103
Sonata for Violin & Piano in D Major, Op.73

[edit] References

Cobbetts Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, edited by W.W. Cobbett, Oxford University Press, London, 1963
Handbuch fũr Streichquartettspieler, Altmann, Wilhelm, Hinrichshofen, Wilhelmshafen, 1972.