Carl Reinecke, born in Altona in 1824, now a district of the German city of Hamburg, he travelled around Europe so as to complete his musical education, always guided by his father from a distance. Rudolf had a classical influence whilst his son learnt new romantic, artistic ideas from Mendelssohn and Schumann in Leipzig. In this same city he was introduced to Liszt. His career received a great impulse. Later he would be more orientated towards conducting.
He worked as pianist in the Danish Royal Court and as professor in the Conservatory of Cologne. He was also musical director in Bermen, but Leipzig was where he developed most of his musical career conducting concerts in the Gewandhaus and teaching piano and composition in the Conservatory.
Reinecke developed the sub-genre of chamber music which was called, ’Hausmusik’ , orientated towards family gatherings, school and social community events, designed not exclusively for the context of public concerts. Without exception, he was outstanding in his treatment of simple and popular forms of the era. Actually, his repertoire should be considered as chamber music with a distinguishable character. Particularly his later works accomplished a great level of dignity and Brahmsian warmth.
In this disc, the Trio Cervelló dedicate a great amount of care and attention to a composer who has not received the attention he rightly deserves. Many German archives about Reinecke have been lost, denying us of vital information. What we are left with is an undeniably valuable collection of works of a high quality from an important and great nineteenth century composer.