During his lifetime, Louis Spohr was one of his age‘s
most esteemed musical personalities. Together with
Niccolo Paganini, he was among the absolute top violinists;
as Kassel‘s court kapellmeister, he had an essential
infl uence on the renewal of orchestra culture. As
a composer, he was more famous than many contemporaneous
colleagues who would later be considered
the masters of German musical tradition, e.g. Robert
Schumann.
He composed violin concertos, symphonies and
chamber music as well as oratorios and ten operas, of
which only Faust and Jessonda are still considered to be
noteworthy.
Now, Der Alchymist is available for the first time
on CD. This is a live recording of a performance at
the Staatstheater Braunschweig on May 24, 2009 –
the fi rst time the opera was heard again after its last
performance in Prague in 1838.