Franz Lachner

[1] Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family (his brothers Ignaz, Theodor [nl] and Vinzenz also became musicians).

As a result of composers' aesthetic comparisons of Beethoven's symphonic output with efforts afterwards, in 1835, there was a competition in Vienna for the best new symphony sponsored by Tobias Haslinger of the music publishing firm with no fewer than 57 entries.

Lachner received first prize with his 5th Symphony Sinfonia passionata, or Preis-Symphonie and became royal Kapellmeister at Munich, becoming a major figure in its musical life, conducting at the opera and various concerts and festivals.

His career there came to a sudden end in 1864 after Richard Wagner's disciple Hans von Bülow took over Lachner's duties.

For performances of Cherubini's Médée in Frankfurt in 1855, Lachner composed recitatives to replace the original spoken dialogue, and it was this version, translated into Italian, which was used in many twentieth-century revivals and recordings of that opera, most notably those with Maria Callas in the title role.