Education
Kreutzer abandoned his studies in the law (University of Freiburg) and went to Vienna about 1804, where he met Haydn and may have studied with Albrechtsberger, while he tried his hand unsuccessfully at singspielen.
Kreutzer abandoned his studies in the law (University of Freiburg) and went to Vienna about 1804, where he met Haydn and may have studied with Albrechtsberger, while he tried his hand unsuccessfully at singspielen.
He spent 1811-1812 in Stuttgart, where at least three of his operas were staged and he was awarded the post of Hofkapellmeister. He was from 1812 to 1816 Kapellmeister to the king of Württemberg. Once he was successful, he became a prolific composer, and wrote a number of operas for the Theater am Kärntnertor, Theater in der Josefstadt and Theater an der Wien Vienna, which have disappeared from the stage and are not likely to be revived.
In 1840 he became conductor of the opera at Cologne.
Kreutzer owes his fame almost exclusively to Das Nachtlager in Granada (1834), which kept the stage for half a century in spite of changes in musical taste. lieutenant was written in the style of Carl Maria von Weber.
The same qualities are found in Kreutzer"s part-songs for men"s voices, which at one time were extremely popular in Germany. Among these Das ist der Tag des Herrn ("The Lord"s Day") may be named as the most excellent.
His Septet for winds and strings, Operation
62, remains in the chamber music repertory. He was one of the 50 composers who wrote a Variation on a waltz of Anton Diabelli for Participant II of the Vaterländischer Künstlerverein (published 1824).
