Felix Draeseke - Piano Sonata Op.6

Andreas Benend - Piano 00:00 Introduzione e marcia funebre - Allegro con brio - Piu Largo 09:45 Intermezzo - Valse - Scherzo 12:43 - Finale - Allegro con brio Felix Draeseke (1835-1913) was a German composer. He was attracted to music early in life and wrote his first composition at age 8. He encountered no opposition from his family when, in his mid-teens, he declared his intention of becoming a professional musician. A few years at the Leipzig conservatory did not seem to benefit his development, but after one of the early performances of Wagner’s Lohengrin he was won to the camp of the New German School centered on Franz Liszt at Weimar, where he stayed from 1856 (arriving just after Joachim Raff’s departure) to 1861. During his career Draeseke divided his efforts almost equally among compositional genres and composed in most of them, including symphonies, concertos, opera, chamber music, and works for solo piano. With his early Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor Sonata quasi Fantasia