Anton Reicha, also known as Antonin Rejcha, was born on February 26, 1770 in Prague and died on May 28, 1836 in Paris. His father, a baker, died when Anton was not even a year old. In 1781, at the age of 11, the boy went to Wallerstein to live with his uncle Joseph Reicha. Although he was married without children, he took in his nephew as his own child.
The uncle far informed him is unknown how. Anton entered the chapel of the Elector Maximilian of Cologne with him in Bonn together. He becomes 1790 here as Geiger in which Cologne national theatre as a flautist mentions. He made friends with Beethoven in the chapel. Reicha got to know works of the Mannheim school and the Viennese classical music, primarily however French operas, in the band. His preference also grew for wind instruments here. 1790 made Reicha to themselves confessed with Joseph Haydn who touched on his first journey to London Bonn. A French revolution was resolved, the band after the outbreak Antonín Reicha left its uncle Joseph and 1794 went to Hamburg since this one. He taught privately here. Reicha moved 1799 to Paris. The flourishing music life and the liberal conditions practised a strong appeal the French capital on him from. He left the town in winter 1801/02 and went to Vienna. Furthermore his compositional education he friendly of Haydn receives, completed here at it with Albrechtsberger and Salieri. In addition, he re-established his friendly relations to Beethoven. The brilliant offer of the conductor office with the prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia declined Reicha. As a composition teacher he enjoyed the broadest recognition. It moved definitely to Paris in October 1808, but its operas found only little echo notwithstanding all efforts. Against this the instrumental works, primarily the wind quintets, had durable success, and as a teacher it reached a high reputation. A chair which it began on January 1st, 1818 was set up at the Parisian Conservatoire for it. Together with Cherubini, Paër, Lesueur, Berton, It was a member of the Comité d'enseignement Boieldieu. Apart from its compositions its theoretical documents also reached the pressure. Reicha married a Frenchwoman 1819, 1829 he was granted the French citizenship. For its contributions to the music it became 1831 knights of the legion of honour and on March 23rd, 1835 as a successor a Boieldieus member of the Institut de France. Soon to that it fell ill and died. Adam, Onslow, Liszt, Berlioz, Dancla, G. Franck, J. G. Kästner belonged to its pupils and a .
6 Quintets op.100 for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon
These six quintets op.100 were first published 1820 in Paris by Zetter. The printing material was transferred to Schott in 1824 which also published the quintets. This publication is the basis of the new edition on hand. The quintets are dedicated to son ami J. C. Bonjour. The following musicians performed the works in Paris:
Joseph Guillou (1787-1853)
Flute
Gustave Vogt 1781-1870)
Oboe
Jacques-Jules Bouffil (1783-1868)
Clarinet
Louis-François Dauprat (1781-1868)
Horn
Monsieur Henry
Bassoon
Quintet No.5 A minor
The manuscript only contains the clarinet part in C. The new edition provides the clarinet part in C as well as B. The same holds true for the horn part, original in D, now also in F
