Franz Danzi in Schwetzingen: 200 Years Since His Death

I am dI am delighted to announce an upcoming concert in Schwetzingen on Monday, 13 April 2026 at 19:30 at St. Pankratius. This performance falls on a striking anniversary: 13 April 2026 marks exactly 200 years since the death of Franz Danzi, who died on 13 April 1826. To perform his music on that very day, in the town of his birth, in the church of his baptism on 15 June 1763, gives the occasion a special commemorative significance.

Danzi is often remembered today chiefly as a composer of wind music, yet he was in fact a far more substantial figure in the musical life of his time. Born in Schwetzingen in 1763, he was raised within the rich artistic world of the Palatine court under the reign of Carl Theodor: the very milieu from which the Mannheim School emerged. His father, Innozenz Danzi, played cello in the renowned Mannheim court orchestra, so Franz grew up surrounded by one of the finest ensembles in Europe and by the distinctive musical ideals for which Mannheim became famous. His early training began at home, but he also studied with other leading figures associated with the court orchestra, among them Abbé Vogler. Already active in the orchestra as a teenager, Danzi went on to hold important posts in Mannheim, Munich, Stuttgart, and Karlsruhe, pursuing a career that placed him among the leading German Kapellmeisters of the generation between Mozart and Weber. Danzi revered Mozart greatly, and Mozart’s influence is evident in the poise of his musical language. Yet Danzi’s own voice increasingly reaches beyond that model. Again and again, his music leans toward a more Romantic sensibility, embracing darker, brooding colours and moody contrasts. His close connection with another Vogler pupil, Carl Maria von Weber only confirms how strongly he stood at the threshold of that newer aesthetic.

Presented by the Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester Quintett, this programme places Danzi in dialogue with the musical world that formed him.

I will be joined by Federico Forla (oboe), Elia Celegato (clarinet), Nicolas Roudier (horn), and Jeongguk Lee (bassoon). The concert includes Mozart’s Quintet in E-flat major, K. 452, a sonata by Franz and his wife, Margarethe Danzi, and Franz Danzi’s Quintet in D minor, Op. 41. It is a programme that reflects both Danzi’s deep admiration for Mozart and his own distinctive voice, especially in music for winds, the genre for which he is still best known today.

The concert begins at 19:30, with admission from 19:00, at St. Pankratius, Dreikönigstraße 2–6, 68723 Schwetzingen. The listed guide price is €30, with alternative price levels also offered.