La Bataille de Prusse 1809

Originator of the Piano Quintet

Louis Ferdinand composed 13 works for piano-- mainly piano trios and quartets-- that were published, including several after his death. He also composed a piano quintet (Opus #1), which is considered to be one of the very first of that type of composition. Most are available on YouTube and will provide substantial enjoyment to the listener. Though his quintet is numbered Opus #1, he is believed to have written several other pieces that do not have opus numbers and are still heard from time to time.

However, his musical career was cut short by the Napoleonic Wars. Prussian aristocracy and royalty became gripped by a war fever which drove the Kingdom of Prussia into a hopeless war in 1806 with Napoleon and the Empire of the French. And along with the Queen, one of the main agitators for war was Louis Ferdinand. He was the commander of the Prussian Saxon division defending Saalfeld in the very early days of the 1806 fall

campaign. While he was the most musically gifted of the Hohenzollern—besting even Frederick the Great—he was not gifted at all militarily. The Battle of Saalfeld provides a list of Louis Ferdinand’s bad decisions just in the few days he had before his battlefield death, including his final decision not to accept the offer of quarter by the French hussar who killed him. Louis Ferdinand became more famous in death than in life—especially in music. Some 40 years after the prince’s death, the great piano composer Franz Liszt wrote his Elegie sur des motifs du Prince Louis Ferdinand de Prusse for solo piano…a romantic ode to the inspirational Prince Louis Ferdinand.

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