Franz Paul Lachner

Franz Paul Lachner (b Rain am Lech, 2 April 1803; d Munich, 20 Jan 1890). Composer and conductor, brother of (1) Theodor Lachner.

He was the most celebrated member of the family. He received his first lessons in the piano and organ from his father, Anton Lachner, the city’s organist. On his father’s death in 1822, he went to Munich, where he scraped a living as an organist, music teacher and instrumentalist in the Isartor theatre orchestra. In 1823 he competed successfully for the post of organist at the Lutheran church in Vienna, where he was able to complete his musical education with Simon Sechter and the Abbé Stadler. He moved in the circle that included Schubert and Moritz von Schwind, and also came to know Beethoven. In 1827 he became assistant conductor at the Kärntnertortheater, and in 1829 was appointed its chief conductor. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish himself in Berlin, Lachner returned to Munich in 1836, where he quickly won a position of prominence in musical life. He was appointed conductor of the Munich Hofoper, directed the concerts of the Musikalische Akademie and also conducted the Königliche Vokalkapelle. He directed the music festivals of Munich in 1855 and 1863, and shared in directing the Salzburg Festival in 1855 and the Aachen festivals in 1861 and 1870. In 1852 he was appointed Generalmusikdirektor and in 1862 was awarded an honorary PhD at the University of Munich. His manifold activities came to an abrupt end in 1864 with Wagner’s arrival in the city. His retirement, for which he applied in 1865, was accepted at first in the form of a holiday and became effective only in 1868, when Wagner’s immediate influence in Munich had long since declined; the grateful city made Lachner an honorary citizen in 1883.

Lachner was prominent in the intellectual life of his time, being a friend of David L. Strauss, Eduard Mörike and Felix Dahn. Among his most important pupils were Joseph Rheinberger and Franz Wüllner. A prolific composer, he took Beethoven and Schubert as his models but was also influenced by Spohr, Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer. He wrote many craftsmanlike works, of which the opera Catarina Cornaro (1841), the seventh orchestral suite op.190 and the Requiem op.146 (revised 1872) in particular had great and lasting success. His other contributions to the musical life in Munich were as conductor of the Munich Opera orchestra, which he successfully prepared for the technical demands of Wagner’s operas, and in raising the standards of the public’s musical taste. His performances of opera and of works by Beethoven were considered exemplary. It was impossible for Lachner to warm to Wagner’s music, and personal confrontations with Wagner and his circle did not improve the relationship between the two men. Despite this antagonism, which finally deprived him of the fruits of his work in Munich, Lachner showed his magnanimity in 1873 by repeating a suggestion he had made nine years earlier, that Wagner be awarded the Royal Maximilian Order – this time successfully.