Introduction

Biography

Kücken learned pi­ano as a child and played cham­ber mu­sic in his youth.

After mov­ing to Schwer­in, he stu­died un­der Fried­rich Lührss, Paul Ar­on, and George Rett­berg.

He com­posed the song Ach, wie wärs mög­lich dann, which be­came quite po­pu­lar and re­sult­ed in his be­ing chos­en for the court of Grand Duke Paul Fried­rich von Meck­len­burg-Schwer­in.

He fur­thered his stu­dies in 1832 with Jo­seph Birn­bach in Ber­lin, with Secht­er in Vi­en­na (1841–43), and Ha­le­vy and Mar­co Bor­dog­ni in Pa­ris. He con­duct­ed at a Stut­tgart court the­ater, 1851–61.

Works

Kücken’s works in­clude cho­ral piec­es, op­era, and oth­ers.

His most po­pu­lar work, the op­era Der Prä­ten­dent, pre­miered in Stutt­gart in 1847.