Carl Reinecke

At the age of 21, Reinecke started touring Northern Europe, as far east as Riga. He attracted favorable attention from Mendelssohn and Robert and Clara Schumann in Leipzig. In 1846, he was appointed court pianist at the Danish royal court of King Christian VIII in Copenhagen and served there into 1848. As such, he gave solo recitals and he also served as accompanist to the well-known violin virtuoso Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1814-1865).

After his Copenhagen job, he traveled to Paris, where he taught. The great piano virtuoso Franz Liszt selected Reinecke to be piano teacher to his daughter, Cosima (future wife of Richard Wagner). Liszt described Reinecke's touch as "beautiful, gentle, legato, and lyrical."

In 1851, he joined the staff of the municipal music school in Cologne, which was being reorganized by Ferdinand Hiller. There he taught piano and counterpoint and was also a recital partner of Hiller, who got him a position in Barmen as town musical director. He conducted several of the town's musical societies and improved the town's musical standards. Subsequently, he was hired as director of music at the University of Breslau and conductor of the Singakademie there.

In 1860, he became a faculty member at the Leipzig Conservatory. Even before he became director in 1897, he was a force for improving it. The teachers hired during his time were capable musicians and effective teachers and moreover, they generally shared Reinecke's conservative views about music. Among the prestigious pupils who studied there were Grieg, Svendsen, Sinding, Sullivan, and Weingartner. Reinecke considered it his mission to transmit the tradition of the Classical composers and earlier composers such as Bach and even Palestrina. He and the Conservatory both earned a reputation in some circles as reactionaries, but no one doubted the solid training it provided its students.