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Scan 81
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1916
8 lines. Read by computer on 6 September 2026. Printed page 53. See the scan on archive.org.
1where he died March 14, 1885. After he retired from the active exercise of his profession he was not idle. He organised a Philharmonic Society at Boulogne; he was President of the Académie Communale de Musique, and his occasional concerts for the benefit of the hospital—where one ward is entitled 'Fondation Reichardt'—were among the chief musical events of the town. Reichardt was a composer as well as a singer. Several of his songs were very popular in their day.
3REICHARDT, JOHANN FRIEDRICH, composer and writer on music; son of a musician; born Nov. 25, 1752, at Königsberg, Prussia. From childhood he showed a great disposition for music, and such intelligence as to interest influential persons, under whose care he was educated and introduced into good society, and thus formed an ideal both of art and of life which he could scarcely have gained had he been brought up among the petty privations of his original position. Unfortunately, the very gifts which enabled him to adopt these high aims, fostered an amount of conceit which often led him into difficulties. His education was more various than precise, music he learned by practice rather than by any real study. His best instrument was the violin, on which he attained considerable proficiency under Veichtner, a pupil of Benda's; but he was also a good pianist. Theory he learned from the organist Richter. On leaving the university of Königsberg he started on a long tour, ostensibly to see the world before choosing a profession, though he had virtually resolved on becoming a musician. Between 1771 and 1774 he visited Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Vienna, Prague, Brunswick, and Hamburg, made the acquaintance of the chief notabilities—musical, literary, and political—in each place, and became himself in some sort a celebrity, after the publication of his impressions in a series of Vertraute Briefen eines aufmerksamen Reisenden, in two parts (1774 and 1776). On his return to Königsberg he went into a government office, but hearing of the death of Agricola of Berlin, he applied in person to Frederick the Great for the vacant post of Capellmeister and Court-composer, [sending him his opera 'Le feste galanti,'] and though barely twenty-four obtained it in 1776. He at once began to introduce reforms, both in the Italian opera and the court orchestra, and thus excited much opposition from those who were more conservative than himself. While thus occupied he was indefatigable as a composer, writer, and conductor. In 1783 he founded the 'Concerts Spirituels' for the performance of unknown works, vocal and instrumental, which speedily gained a high reputation. He published collections of little-known music, with critical observations, edited newspapers, wrote articles and critiques in other periodicals, and produced independent works. But enemies, who were many, contrived to annoy him so much in the exercise of his duties, that in 1785 he obtained a long leave of absence, during which he visited London and Paris, and heard Handel's oratorios and Gluck's operas, both of which he heartily admired. In both places he met with great success as composer and conductor, and was popular for his social qualities; but neither of his two French operas 'Tamerlan' and 'Panthée,' composed for the Académie, was performed. On the death of Frederick the Great (1786) his successor confirmed Reichardt in his office, and he produced several new operas, but his position became more and more disagreeable. His vanity was of a peculiarly offensive kind, and his enemies found a weapon ready to their hand in his avowed sympathy with the doctrines of the French Revolution. The attraction of these views for a buoyant, liberal mind like Reichardt's, always in pursuit of high ideals, and eager for novelty, is obvious enough; but such ideas are dangerous at court, and after further absence (from 1791) which he spent in Italy, Hamburg, Paris, and elsewhere, he received his dismissal from the Capellmeistership in 1794.1 He retired to his estate, Giebichenstein, near Halle, and occupied himself with literature and composition, and occasional tours. In 1796 he became inspector of the salt works at Halle. After the death of Frederick William II. he produced a few more operas in Berlin, but made a greater mark with his Singspiele, which are of real importance in the history of German opera. In 1808 he accepted the post of Capellmeister at Cassel to Jerome Bonaparte, refused by Beethoven, but did not occupy it long, as in the same year we find him making a long visit to Vienna. On his return to Giebichenstein he gathered round him a pleasant and cultivated society, and there, in the midst of his friends, he died, June 17, 1814.
5Reichardt has been, as a rule, harshly judged; he was not a mere musician, but rather a combination of musician, litterateur, and man of the world. His overweening personality led him into many difficulties, but as a compensation he was endued with great intelligence, and with an ardent and genuine desire for progress in everything—music, literature, and politics. As a composer his works show cultivation, thought, and honesty: but have not lived, because they want the necessary originality. This is specially true of his instrumental music, which is entirely forgotten. His vocal music, however, is more important, and a good deal of it might well be revived, especially his Singspiele and his Lieder. Mendelssohn was no indulgent critic, but on more than one occasion he speaks of Reichardt with a warmth
71 There was apparently some dissatisfaction with Reichardt's efficiency as a musician as well as with his political opinions, for Mozart's remark that 'the King's band contains great virtuosi, but the effect would be better if the gentlemen played together,' certainly implied a reflection on the conductor. Neither does Reichardt seem to have appreciated Mozart (Jahn's Mozart, ii. 410).
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