Wilhelm Anton Lütgen
Divertissement for 3 horns op. 11
Unfortunately, W. A. Lütgen is one of the composers for whom very little biographical evidence survives. He is probably identical with Wilhelm Anton Lütgen, also spelled Lüttgen (1781–1857), a violinist, composer, and music teacher in Cologne. The best known of his compositions is probably the horn quartet op. 19 (published around 1835 by Mompour/Bonn), which is still part of the standard repertoire of many horn quartets today and has already been recorded several times on CD.
A few chamber music works for string instruments by Lütgen are also documented. A quartet for horn, violin, viola, and violoncello op. 30 (ROM 092) followed in 1836. As early as 1819, a Notturno for 2 flutes and 2 horns had been published by Verlag Schott, now newly edited as ROM 067.
In 1835, the Bonn publishing house Mompour announced the publication of the Divertissement pour 3 cors.
The four-movement work convinces through its assured command of the horn range. On the threshold of the transition from the valveless invention horn to the valve horn, it remains questionable whether this work was written for natural horn or already for valve horn. For a valveless instrument, the third horn part can be described as highly virtuosic, though models for this can be found in the compositions of Dauprat and Carl Oestreich.
