Joseph Drechsler (1782-1852)

[UnsungMasterpieces]

Joseph Drechsler (1782-1852) was one of 51 composers who (by invitation) contributed to the Vaterländischer Künstlerverein, an anthology of 83 variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli. Of these variations, the most famous ones are Beethoven's 33 Diabelli Variations. Some other famous composers who had their variations included in the publication were Czerny, Hummel, Schubert, and even a 12-year old Franz Liszt.

But back to Drechsler. He was born in what is now the Czech Republic and today he is apparently best known for the song Brüderlein fein, which was part of a theatre piece called Das Mädchen aus der Feenwelt oder Der Bauer als Millionär. A full recording of this work is available, but I have not found it yet. The interesting thing about this work is that the playwright Ferdinand Raimund (who wrote the play) claims in his autobiography that he composed the melody for Brüderlein fein and other songs himself, according to the German Wikipedia. Furthermore, it's mentioned that Drechsler took these melodies by Raimund as a starting point for his own compositions for the piece.

The amount of recordings of Drechsler's works is very limited. Besides Der Bauer als Millionär, multiple recordings of Brüderlein fein and his Diabelli variation, there is a quartet for three flutes and alto flute. But here it pretty much ends, as far as I'm aware now.

Also of interest is the fact that Johann Strauss II was one of Drechsler's pupils.

Here's the full Wikipedia page in German. There's also an English one, but the German page is much more informative:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Drechsler