Carl Reinecke

Wasserfrauen

Carl Reinecke's Märchengestalten op. 147 was first published in the original version for piano solo in February 1878. A version for piano four hands, arranged by the composer himself, was also published in 1886. Reinecke dedicated these fantasy pieces to his daughter Charlotte ("Lottchen"), who was born in 1867. This dedication is to be understood as a first indication of the pedagogical intentions of this opus. However, the simple form of the fairy-tale characters, their short length of three lines to two pages and their not too high technical demands also point in the same direction. In his guidebook Was sollen wir spielen? a guide to the literature of domestic music intended partly to awaken and partly to cultivate the musical talent of growing children and to cultivate music in the home, Reinecke places the work alongside his Sonatinas op. 47 and 98 and places it alongside Beethoven's Piano Sonatas op. 49, Schumann's Album for Young People op. 68 (Nos. 6-11) and Mozart's Piano Sonata in G major K. 283. The fairy-tale figures were well received in the specialist press. The Monthly Musical Record called Carl Reinecke "the Hans Christian Andersen of the pianoforte" and warned against underestimating these poetic little "show-pieces" of unaffected, musical character ("sterling musicianly character"), despite their simplicity and very moderate technical demands.