As a residential city, Königsberg (today Kaliningrad) was the centre of music-making in East Prussia. In the Renaissance period Johannes Eccard (1553-1611) became famous as a court conductor and in the Baroque period the composer Heinrich Albert (1604-1651). Albert set verses by Simon Dach to music, which as "Ännchen of Tharau" in High German by Johann Gottfried Herder became one of the most popular folk songs. East Prussian songs of later times like "Zogen einst fünf wilde Schwäne" (Once There Flew Five Wild Swans) or "Land der dunklen Wälder"(Country of the Dark Woods) are still popular today. Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814) from Königsberg was the court conductor of Frederick the Great.
Romantic composers from Königsberg are E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) and Otto Nicolai (1810-1849), known for their "Merry Wives of Windsor".
Before his time in Riga Richard Wagner was a music director at the Königsberg theatre for a short time in 1837. The German premiere of Georges Bizet's "Carmen" took place there in 1879. Later Werner Richard Heymann (1896-1961) became a star with German Schlager hits and film music.
Illustration:
Richard Strauß conducts in Königsberg on 29th March 1927, lithography by the Königsberg painter Ernst Schaumann (1890-1955)
Königsberg's concert life attracted many guest conductors, including celebrities such as Wilhelm Furtwängler and Karl Böhm. Especially owing to the music critic Gustav Dömpke (1853-1923) Königsberg was considered the "Brahms city" around 1900.