Franz Krenn: Rondino (über ein Motiv aus Flotows Oper „Die Matrosen“) @PSearPianist

Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

Phillip Sear plays a rondino on a theme from an opera by Flotow. It was written around 1850 by the Austrian composer, organist, and pedagogue Franz Krenn (1816–97)
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“Born in Droß (a small municipality located in the Krems-Land district of Lower Austria), Krenn was the son of a teacher, and received his initial musical training from his father before completing teacher training in Krems. He taught briefly in Weikersdorf and served as a teaching assistant in Neulerchenfeld, where his first mass was performed around 1837. In 1834 he moved to Vienna to study with Ignaz von Seyfried, and he subsequently held positions as organist at St. Leopold from 1844 and as choirmaster at Mariahilf from 1847, during which time he also established a music school. Around 1852 he taught at the Akademie der Tonkunst, and in 1862 he became Kapellmeister at St. Michael's Church, where he promoted the Cecilian movement. From 1869 until 1893 he taught harmony, counterpoint, and composition at the Conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, serving as a colleague of Anton Bruckner and as a state examination commissioner from 1876.

Krenn's output for solo keyboard, while modest in comparison with his liturgical catalogue, comprised pedagogical and functional pieces written in the context of his teaching and church duties. The Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon lists works for piano and organ among his compositions, though individual titles and opus numbers remain largely unrecorded in modern scholarship. Stylistically, these pieces reflect the restrained, contrapuntally informed aesthetic of the Viennese Cecilianist circle, prioritising clarity of texture and formal discipline over virtuoso display. As a conservatory professor who trained generations of Austrian musicians, Krenn conceived his keyboard music primarily as didactic material and service repertoire rather than as concert works, placing it outside the mainstream Romantic piano literature cultivated by his contemporary Liszt or the younger Brahms.

Krenn's wider catalogue is dominated by sacred music, including twenty-nine masses, a Requiem, a Te Deum, and the oratorios 'Bonifacius' and 'Die vier letzten Dinge', alongside a symphony, an overture to the play 'Julius' (1837), chamber music, and the Posse 'Die Wünschelruthe' (1842). His theoretical publications, notably 'Orgelschule' (1845) and 'Musik- und Harmonielehre' (1890), codified the pedagogical methods he employed at the Conservatory. His lasting significance lies less in his own compositions than in his teaching legacy: his pupils included Gustav Mahler, Hans Rott, Hugo Wolf, Ferdinand Löwe, and Alexander Zemlinsky, ensuring that his contrapuntal and harmonic precepts shaped the Viennese musical landscape well into the twentieth century.” (Perplexity AI, 22 May 2026).

"Friedrich von Flotow's opera 'Die Matrosen' (The Sailors) was originally composed in French as 'Le Naufrage de la Meduse' (The Wreck of the Medusa) in collaboration with Auguste Pilati, receiving its premiere in Paris on 31 May 1839. Flotow later completely rewrote the work with a German libretto, and it was first performed in this revised form as 'Die Matrosen' in Hamburg on 23 December 1845, from where it subsequently spread to other German theatres." (Perplexity). I'm not sure that it had been performed in Vienna by the time this piece appeared.

The rondino was published in a weekly piano publication for 1850 issued in Vienna by Haslinger, titled 'Musikalischer Telegraf für das Piano-Forte: Wochenblatt für das Jahr 1850', enthaltend interessante Musikstücke von versch. Comp.. The title means roughly “Musical Telegraph for the Piano-Forte: weekly sheet for the year 1850, containing interesting music pieces by various composers”. There were 52 pieces in the collection, one for each week, and it was sold as individual pieces, and (after 1850) as a complete set. I have no idea if it appeared for other years, but it provides a fascinating insight into the tastes of the time (mainly of the Viennese domestic market).

Thumbnail image generated by Gemini (within Google Slides).
#austrianmusic #rondo
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Played by Phillip Sear
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Franz Krenn: Rondino (über ein Motiv aus Flotows Oper „Die Matrosen“)

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$Harvey Löhr: Snow-white (Schneewittchen), Op.23 No.21 #21 from Grimm Fairy Tales (Silhouettes), Op.23 (1904) Phillip Sear plays a piece from a set of 25 by the English composer of German descent (Richard) Harvey Löhr (1856–1927). Born in Leicester, Löhr was the youngest son of the German-born organist and conductor George Augustus Löhr (1821–1897), who had settled in England and became a significant figure in the musical life of the East Midlands. The family background provided a distinctly German orientation to Harvey Löhrs early musical formation. He received his advanced training at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under William Henry Holmes, Ebenezer Prout, and Sir Arthur Sullivan. He twice won the prestigious Charles Lucas Medal, in 1877 and 1878, attesting to early distinction as a student composer. He subsequently held the post of organist at St Jamess Church, Marylebone, a position that sustained his connection to Londons musical life throughout his professional career. Löhr died in Hastings, and his manuscripts are preserved at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Löhrs piano music occupies a modest but characteristic corner of the late-Victorian keyboard repertoire, oriented towards the lyric miniature and the genre piece rather than the large-scale sonata. A Shakespeare Cycle, Op.19 (1898), a set of twelve pieces published by Schott & Co., represents his most ambitious contribution to the genre, drawing on literary imagery in a manner consistent with the characteristic piece tradition of the period. Other collections include Garden Idylls, Op.25 (1910), an album of twelve lyric pieces, and When We Were Children, Op.26 (1913), six character pieces also issued by Schott, suggesting a secondary market in pedagogical and domestic salon repertoire. Lighter pieces such as Ariel (1889) and Scenes from Fairyland, Op.21 (1901) reinforce an imaginative, illustrative approach to keyboard writing. The piano music forms only a fraction of Löhrs considerable catalogue, which includes five symphonies, two piano concertos, two string quartets, a piano quintet, a piano quartet (Op.15), and a piano trio (Op.22), alongside the operas A Border Raid (1883) and Kenilworth (1906). His choral output embraces the oratorio The Queen of Sheba, Op.20 (1900) and several anthems and part-songs, complemented by a large body of solo song. Though Löhr attracted little sustained critical attention in the twentieth century, his enduring legacy is institutional: a scholarship bearing his name was established at the Royal Academy of Music for British-born composers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four, a fund that has supported subsequent generations of student composers, among them Craig Armstrong.” (Perplexity AI, 21 June 2026). Snow White (Schneewittchen, KHM 53) is one of the most famous tales in the Brothers Grimm collection, first published in 1812 and revised through to the final 1857 edition. A queen, sewing at a window with an ebony frame during a winter snowfall, pricks her finger and wishes for a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony; soon afterwards she gives birth to a daughter named Snow White and dies. The king remarries a beautiful but proud woman who possesses a magic mirror; when the mirror declares that the seven-year-old Snow White is now “a thousand times fairer” than the queen, the jealous stepmother orders a huntsman to kill the child and bring back her lungs and liver as proof. The huntsman spares Snow White, who flees into the forest and finds refuge with seven dwarfs, but the queen, learning from the mirror that her stepdaughter still lives, disguises herself three times and tries to kill Snow White with a poisoned bodice, a poisoned comb, and finally a poisoned apple. The apple casts Snow White into a deathlike sleep; she is placed in a glass coffin until a prince, struck by her beauty, takes her away, and when the coffin is jolted the apple piece dislodges from her throat and she revives. The tale ends with Snow White’s marriage to the prince and the wicked queen’s punishment, often interpreted as a story of innocence threatened by envy but ultimately preserved through kindness and loyalty. (Perplexity AI, 26 August 2026). Thumbnail image created with Reve AI. #britishmusic #brothersgrimm #snowwhiteandthesevendwarfs Played by Phillip Sear http://www.psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com WhatsApp: http://wa.me/441444483794 ) TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pianogems ****See all my latest videos here: https://tinyurl.com/phillip210 ****$