CARL REINECKE (1824-1910) German Pianist and Composer
Although today he is better known as a composer, Carl Reinecke was a formidable pianist, and was conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1860 to 1895. He was born in 1824 and is the earliest born pianist to have made recordings of any kind. To put this in perspective, 185 years ago, in 1824, Beethoven and Schubert were still alive, Chopin, Schumann and Liszt were just barely teenagers, Brahms and Tchaikovsky were not yet born, and his first concert tour took place in the year of Grieg's birth (1843).
Unfortunately the only examples of Carl Reinecke's playing I am aware of at this time are recordings in the form of piano rolls he made around 1907, but these nonetheless give us a glimpse of his style of playing.
Although he was 13 years Liszt's junior, he was a classicist, belonging more to the the end of the Mozart/Clementi era than to the beginning of the modern Romantic style of piano playing of Liszt. As a result, it may be possible that we hear hear in his playing a hint of the way Mozart himself might have played.
Having said this, Reinecke's playing of the two Mozart examples may well come as a shock. Do not confuse our idea of the Classical style with today's even, and often unemotional, style of playing the classics. And do not forget that in Mozart's time improvisation was king and it was considered in very poor taste to play even a piece that was written out the same way twice.
Reinecke's seemingly odd rhythmic variation and his tendency not to play notes that are written as being struck simultaneously, well, simultaneously, may well be the kind of improv-like effects that were in vogue at the time. If so, it comes as no surprise that this type of playing was considered old fashioned during his lifetime and that composers like Beethoven went to great lengths to write out ornaments, give metronome markings, and insist that their compositions were played as written.
Reinecke Balade Opus 20
Reinecke Notturno Op.157 N°1
Beethoven Ecossaise in E flat Major
Field Nocturne No 4
Mozart Piano Concerto in D Major, K.537 ii. Larghetto 1905 piano roll
