Johann Georg Abeltshauser
Quartet op. 2 for 2 Flutes & 2 Horns
Works for 2 flutes and 2 horns are an attractive but rare instrumentation in chamber music. There are 12 Nocturnes by Joseph Haydn for this instrumentation. Nocturnes by Wilhelm Anton Lütgen (1781 – 1857) was edited as ROM 067 in the Robert Ostermeyer music edition. These were published in 1818 by the Schott publishing house in Mainz.
The present quartet with the title appeared a little earlier in 1813 Quatuor pour deux flutes & deux cors Oeuvre 2
by Johann Georg Abeltshauser. The title page notes that he was Premier Cor du Theater Français de Strasbourg at the time. Little is known biographically about him. His son was Ignatius Georg Abeltshauser. He was born in 1805 or 1806 in Arenberg, Département de Rhin-et-Moselle, French Empire. After he killed his opponent in a duel, he fled to Ireland, where he became a well-known linguist and ordained as a priest. He died in Dublin in 1866.
Johann Georg Abeltshauser must have lived in Arenberg in 1805/06 before his engagement in Strasbourg.
In addition to his present quartet op. 2, he published 12 quartets for 4 horns, 6 quartets op. 3, also for 2 flutes and 2 horns, and as opus 4 a quartet for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon (newly edited as ROM 430).
