Vinzenz, the forgotten Lachner.

[John H White]

I've just noticed that Vinzenz Lachner's 200th birthday fell on the 17th of this month. Nobody seemed to remember that, even me this time; so I was unable alert the BBC to the above fact. Not that the present Radio 3 Controller ever takes any notice of my messages anyway. I'd love to get hold of some more of his music, either printed or recorded as all I have so far is the Rodin Quartet's recording of 2 string quartets by him on the Amati label which also has the surviving quartets of his 2 elder brothers. I find both these works very enjoyable and well written, even if they tend to be eclipsed by those of Franz and Ignaz.
    It would be nice to hear some of his symphonic and choral music as well as that of elder brother Ignaz. But I doubt if anything will be done about that in my lifetime.

[eschiss1]

agreed; I've been able to deduce that he wrote quite a few symphonies etc. but the usual sources - HMB etc. - aren't very helpful as to how many. His published works seem to number about 80-odd- the above source gives the exact number (what with the last one being published as nachgelassen...) but will check in a bit, apologies for laziness... and unfortunately at the moment IMSLP has very very little by him- possibly just his opus 10 piano quartet, even. Still, might be able to augment it by a little at some point...

[ArturPS]

In the last few months I bought my first recordings of the "unforgotten" Lachner (Franz - if there is any such thing as an unforgotten Lachner). I really liked all that I got (the marco polo recordings - symps. 1, 5, 8 and 3 suites). Money's been too tight for me to venture into anything, but the Requiem is in my sights for quite a while.

How's his music? What would you recommend? I see arkivmusic has almost nothing of him...