Johann Nicolaus Denninger (1743-1813) numbers among the many musicians of the Classical period who in their multiple roles as instrumentalists, composers and music directors contributed not inconsiderably to tilling the field for the greats of their epoch. In the few extant instrumental works remaining it his main instrument, the harpsichord or the fortepiano then coming into fashion, occupies the focus. Formally and stylistically, these works represent the state of development during the last two decades of the 18th c., a period for which Haydn and Mozart set the decisive standards.

Trio 1790's releases for the German specialist label cpo, in which they trace the development of the trio in the second half of the 18th century, have harvested a great deal of praise in the critical press, and this issue containing six (not five) sonatas by Bach's second son Carl Philipp Emanuel is exemplary in that both the performance and the engineering are of the highest standard. The program contains excerpts from three collections published in London and Leipzig in 1776 and 1777, at a time therefore when the harpsichord was gradually being replaced by the fortepiano, so that Harald Hoeren is probably right to choose the latter despite the fact that Bach himself left it up to the performers which of the two instruments they preferred to use.

Leopold Kozeluch enjoyed such an outstanding reputation already in 1781 that he received an offer from the Archbishop of Salzburg to succeed Mozart as court organist. Kozeluch's piano trios must have been very popular since more than sixty of them appeared in print from 1781 to 1810. The three trios presented here were published in 1798/99 and had been preceded by forty other such works by him. The special feature of these three piano trios lies in his use of melodies from Scottish folk songs in their middle and last movements. Toward the end of the eighteenth century the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson had the idea to have Viennese classical composers set Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folk songs to music with an accompaniment for piano, violin, and violoncello and contacted Haydn, Kozeluch, Pleyel, and (later) Beethoven in the hope of winning them for this project.

Four of Ignaz Pleyel’s Piano Trios are featured on this new release, interpreted by Trio 1790 on period instruments. Trio 1790 have recorded a critically acclaimed series of Haydn’s Piano Trios for Cpo and these trios by Pleyel, a former pupil and friend of Joseph Haydn, provide gallant melodies, dramatic harmonies and many tonal surprises.

Leopold Anton Kozeluch (1747-1818) gehört zu jener Generation von Böhmen, die in Wien im 18. Jahrhundert ihr Glück zu machen suchten. Schon 1781 hatte Kozeluch einen dermaßen guten Ruf, dass er vom Salzburger Erzbischof das Angebot erhielt, als Nachfolger von Mozart das Amt des Hoforganisten zu übernehmen. Seine Klaviertrios müssen sehr beliebt gewesen sein, denn von 1781 bis 1810 waren über 60 davon erschienen.