Carl Anton Philipp Braun (1788–1835)
2 Quartets for Flute, Oboe, Horn and Bassoon
Quartet in F major
Carl Anton Philipp Braun (1788–1835) was trained as an oboist by his father, Johann Friedrich Braun (1759–1824), oboist and violinist at the Mecklenburg court in Ludwigslust. On 15 September 1806 he gave his first major concert at the Mecklenburg court. From 1 August 1807 he served under his uncle Friedrich Ludwig Aemilius Kunzen as Royal Danish chamber musician in Copenhagen. An extended concert tour begun in late summer 1811 took him back to his native Ludwigslust and, via Waltershausen, to Leipzig, where he performed at the Gewandhaus. In mid-April 1812 he gave concerts in Munich. On 29 September 1815 he became a member of the court orchestra in Stockholm and later served as music director of several regiments stationed there. Through subscription concerts (from 1817) and military concerts (from 1826), he helped shape Sweden's public musical life. His wife Maria Helena, whom he married on 29 October 1825, was a daughter of the singer and court secretary K. M. Craelius.
Music for oboe, wind-band pieces ("Harmoniemusik"), and theatre music for or with wind players were the specialities of the composer C. A. Ph. Braun. His works, shaped by his own instrument, were received favourably in the German musical press.
The quartets composed by C. A. P. Braun around 1820 are, in their scoring without a clarinet, very rare within the music literature of the period. Both quartets take their cue from Anton Reicha's wind quintets, which were a novelty in concert life at the time. Both works were first published around 1820 by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig.
