Ignaz Lachner: a Mystery!

[John H White]

I was adding his Concertino for Horn, Bassoon and Orchestra to the Wikipaedia list of his works when I noticed that it appeared to share the same opus number (Op.43) with his first surviving string quartet. I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this apparent duplication. Whilst on the subject of Ignaz Lachner, I seem to remember reading somewhere that he wrote a special symphony for children, no doubt on similar lines to Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony. It would also be interesting to know if any other orchestral works of his have survived.

[eschiss1]

Op.43 is also the opus number of the 3rd (in A) of Ignaz Lachner's "3 Sonates faciles et brillantes" published by Aibl in 1855, 10 years before the string quartet. This is not that unusual...

As to orchestral music, several concertinos by him- (all published posthumously it seems (that Op.43 should be Op.43 (posth.) or better yet, no opus number at all) - (for horn, bassoon and orchestra (based perhaps on an ca.1850 ms. copy at Hohenlohe-Zentralarchiv, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Neuenstein listed in RISM-online) ; another for oboe and orchestra) are listed in Worldcat - edited variously by Bodo Lachner and Robert Ostermeyer. But Worldcat at least lists only that, the Kindersymphonie and excerpts from his opera Loreley... (HMB lists some choral works by Ignaz with orchestral accompaniment - "Deutsche Vesper f. 4 Singst. mit Orgel u. Orch.", published 1852, e.g. RISM lists "Die beiden Freier" for 3 voices and orchestra in ms. copy at Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Hochschularchiv, Weimar, and other works also. So extending to vocal, not purely orchestral works, there's some things there, though I guess one knew that already...)

(RISM also lists an autograph string quartet, 28 pages in score, by Ignaz in E minor, at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, one of several Ignaz Lachner autographs they have. Wonder if it's complete, or just a fragment... - maybe they've digitized it; will have to check...)

[John H White]

Many thanks, Eric, for that very comprehensive reply. It would be nice if someone like Dr Harald J Mann could come in and sort out the mess.