Friedrich Ernst Fesca (1789–1826)
Andante and Rondo in F major for Horn and Orchestra, Op. 39
Friedrich Ernst Fesca's Andante and Rondo for horn was composed in the spring of 1825. It is dedicated to Johann Christoph Schuncke (1791–1856), one of five sons of Johann Gottfried Schuncke the Elder, all of whom became outstanding horn players. For more information on the Schuncke family of horn players, see here.
Today, Fesca is sadly little known as a musician and composer, yet almost everyone knows the melody of "An der Saale hellem Strande", which he composed as Op. 27 No. 1. He was an excellent violinist himself, holding posts in Leipzig and Kassel and finally serving as concertmaster in Karlsruhe. String quartets make up the bulk of his compositional output.
Besides a performance by Christoph Schuncke, which surely took place but is not documented, a performance of the Andante and Rondo, Op. 39, by the horn player Fuchs in Dessau in 1826 is on record. Fuchs, soloist in numerous Gewandhaus concerts and principal horn of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, had left Leipzig around 1820 to take up a new position in Dessau. In a retrospective on the Dessau concerts in the Berliner Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of 20 June 1827, Fesca's composition is praised as "excellent".
An interesting detail is revealed by a surviving letter from the publisher Simrock to Fesca. Fesca had offered Simrock his third flute quartet, Op. 40, the Overture, Op. 41, and the Andante and Rondo, Op. 39. Simrock replied on 6 May 1825:
"Horn music is demanded only by artists on this instrument. You can easily judge for yourself how little this is the case."