German Music With Clarinet – Dario Zingalesi

ohann Ludwig Böhner (1787-1860), talented composer, virtuoso pianist and organist, had as a child the musical influence of his father, also organist. He was born in Töttelstadt (Germany), and studied composition with Michael Gotthard Fisher before to meet Ludwig Spohr in Gotha, the town where he taught piano from 1805. In 1797, at the age of ten, he composed An die Freude. Between 1811 and 1814, he worked in Nuremberg, where he wrote his most important compositions such as five piano concerts, a Fantasia op.1 for bassoon and orchestra, and the Fantasia op. 21 for clarinet and orchestra, here in the version for clarinet and piano. The brilliant German musician also composed, apart from the above mentioned works, a Symphony in D min. op. 130, a Fantasia for clarinet and piano op. 68, some Lieder, piano and organ works, chamber music for different instrumental combinations and many Operas, we cite for example Der Dreiherrenstein. During his life he worked also in southern Germany and Switzerland too, but he spent his lifetime’s last year until his death in the town of Gotha. Gustav Jenner (1865-1920) approached the music because his parents, amateur musicians, who often played at home. As a child, he received the first piano lessons and he undertook the composition as a self-taught person.