Anton Eberl - Grande Sonate
Mozart's Alter Ego and Beethoven's rival…
Trio Van Hengel's debut CD was released in 2006. We invite you to indulge in the beautiful and virtuosic chamber music of this forgotten genius who has at long last been resurrected in the 21st century, recorded by the exclusive label, Ramée. The recording as received glowing reviews from the European press including being awarded the highest accolade, a "10", by the Dutch national classical music magazine, Luister. To read the reviews please click here.
Programme:
Trio in E flat major, op.36
Clarinet Sonata in B flat major, op. 10 No.2
Quintet in g minor, op.41 for clarinet, 2 violas, violoncello and fortepianoFor the quintet, Trio Van Hengel was joined by guest viola players, Stephen Freeman and Frouke Mooij.
For this recording Trio Van Hengel collaborated with Van Sambeek Edities to make their own edition of the Eberl Clarinet Sonata. This sonata was published by Van Sambeek at the same time as the CD was released.
Please click here to order this Clarinet Sonata via Resonance Music Management.
Being considered equal to, or even better than, Beethoven, Anton Eberl (1765-1807) was apparently so well received that his works could pass as being composed by Mozart. His Piano Sonata, op. 1, for example, was published many times as Mozart's last great sonata. Eberl contributed greatly in the change of style and hereby opened doors for the later Romantic composers such as Schubert and Mendelssohn. An explanation as to why Eberl's often extremely complex music was never rediscovered in the twentieth century might be that it is very difficult to render a satisfactory performance on modern instruments. His style, which combines the lightness of Classical music with the melodiousness of Romanticism, is much easier to understand when played on original instruments. Eberl makes perfect use of the characteristics and »unevenness« of the early nineteenth century instruments, such as the chromatic colouring of the clarinet and the different registers of the fortepiano and the cello, a quality which becomes lost when played on the more »even« modern instruments. At the peak of his fame, Eberl toured to Prague, Dresden, Weimar, Berlin, Leipzig, Gotha, Frankfurt and Mannheim. At the time of his death he left an oeuvre of around fifty opus numbers, mainly written after 1800. The Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung remarked on the early death of this artist »that he had been mourned as is rarely the case«. The fact that in musical history the talent of this promising pioneer of the Romantic era has been consistently ranked lower than the three »giants« Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven could be forgiven; that he has been forgotten most certainly can not.