Re-assessing Carl Reinecke

[Alan Howe]

Try Zenobia, Ilja, turned up loud and see what you think...

[Maury]

Personally I have never been a fan of the short opening works, not because they are short but due to the frequent poor judgments in selecting such works. To me also it makes more sense to open with the Concerto and then have a well chosen "intermezzo" before the so-called major work at the end. The times that I went to concerts with this arrangement seemed much better paced than the ones with a short "curtain raiser" of no particular consequence.
 

[Alan Howe]

Zenobia's rather a fine piece...

[Maury]

Agreed. I think the works of the Unsungs would be excellent to include as openers and intermezzos. Reinicke, Raff etc have interesting candidates for this role which would at least introduce them to good effect. And as has been noted here, they were often in circumstances where the priority was to create enjoyable quality music rather some epic innovation.