"If he is not a composer of the Romantic era, then he must be considered the most romantic of the Classical." So wrote Robert Schumann of Louis Ferdinand Hohenzollern (1772-1806), a nephew of Frederick the Great and a Prince of Prussia.
A professional soldier, who died during a battle fighting Napoleon's invading army, Louis Ferdinand was also trained as a musician, studying piano and composition with several different teachers. He was a gifted pianist, reckoned a virtuoso with few peers by those who heard him, and his compositions have always been regarded as the work of a professional composer. Musicologists generally consider him an early Romantic whose music anticipated Schubert and Schumann, but one can also hear the influence of Mozart as well as early Beethoven. Military and court life left little time to compose, and he has but a few works to his credit, mostly chamber music. These include 3 piano trios, 2 piano quartets, and a piano quintet.
Piano Quartet No. 2 in f minor, Op. 6 was composed immediately after his first. It is dedicated to the French violin virtuoso Pierre Rode. Since the dedicatee was a string player, the writing for strings is better, and that of the piano, while still brilliant, is less pronounced. Particularly impressive is the main theme of the opening movement, Allegro moderato. It is elegiac and dark. One wonders if Louis Ferdinand knew that he was soon to die on the battlefield. The second movement is a Beethovenian minuet, Agitato. It is highly doubtful that the Prince was familiar with Beethoven’s early work, which makes this all the more impressive. Since he was an almost exact contemporary of Beethoven, one wonders if he, too, was moving, independently, in the same direction as the great Ludwig. In the contrasting trio section, there is a lovely Ländler. The third movement, Adagio lento e amoroso, shows a great depth of feeling, unusual in the normally sunny composer. The oppressively painful mood of the first movement reappears in the finale, Allegro ma moderato espressivo, and although the music lurches into the more upbeat major, it lapses back into the minor at its end.
From this period, there is little that is better for the piano quartet. Certainly should be presented in concert and will also appeal to amateur ensembles.
