Carl Christian Eisner was born in Pulsnitz, Saxony, in 1802. After his training in Dresden, he joined the Imperial Court Orchestra of St. Petersburg as a chamber musician, where he worked until 1836. Between 1835 and 1848 Eisner toured Europe as a soloist, with performances in Dresden, Vienna, Pest and Leipzig, including performances of his own compositions. After 1836 he returned to the court orchestra in Dresden. In 1848 he was appointed extraordinary chamber musician and in 1854 he was promoted to full chamber musician and first horn player of the Royal Chapel Dresden. He held this position until his retirement in 1871. Carl Eisner was the first horn teacher at the Conservatory of Music in Dresden, founded in 1856.
His warm tone and brilliant technique were praised in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, particularly mentioning that he still played the natural horn. However, Eisner also mastered the new valve horn and transferred the tonal advantages of the natural horn to the technically superior valve horn.
1st Sextet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassett horn and Bassoon
Carl Eisner dedicated the first sextet to the Dresden Tonkunstlerverein, of which he was most likely a member himself and played the horn part in both sextets. It can be assumed that he also composed the second sextet for these musicians, although there is no explicit dedication for it. Both sextets were created between 1854 and 1870 and use the valve horn or corno chromate. for the horn.
These previously unpublished sextets by Carl Eisner are compositionally in line with the quintets by Anton Reicha. The virtuoso voice leading, the excellent treatment of each instrument and the extremely precise and comprehensive dynamic elaboration of the voices testify to the true mastery of the composer Carl Eisner.
