The cellist Joseph Reicha, born on February 12, 1752 in Chudenice near Klattau (Western Bohemia), received his training in Prague. In 1774 he became the first cellist to join the Wallerstein court chapel. From about 1780 he also acted as band leader in this orchestra. In 1781 he also recorded his nephew Anton Reicha (1770 - 1836), who later became famous, and taught him to play several instruments. He certainly taught him composition.
Prince Kraft Ernst obviously valued his band leader very much, his salary of 750 guilders was twice as high as the highest income of the other musicians in the band. Reicha left Wallerstein's court in 1785 to serve as the concert master of Archbishop Maximilian Franz of Cologne. A short time later he named him concert director of the Bonn Court Orchestra with a salary of 1,000 guilders. In 1790 his nephew Anton played as violinist and flautist and the young Beethoven as violist in this chapel.
Reicha contracted gout at the beginning of the 1790s and died on March 5, 1795 in Bonn.
Reicha's compositions were created almost exclusively in his 11-year period in Wallerstein. They include symphonies, solo concerts and chamber music.
Sinfonia in Eb for 2 oboes, 2 horns, 2 violins, viola and basso
- first printing -
Amazingly, Reicha composed few symphonies. 2 of them, both in D major, were published by Simrock in Bonn.
The Sinonia in Es presented here is based on the Wallersteiner Hofbibliothek, where an autograph score of the work has been preserved.
