This new release presents the Trio Sonatas of Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht (1722–1794), performed here by Ensemble La Cantonnade.

The fact that few works of Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht are performed these days is due less to an injustice on the part of the history of music or to the overshadowing genius of his contemporaries Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn than to the vagaries of history and the cultural context then in upheaval. Of humble extraction, the Kleinknecht family saw three of its sons pursue brilliant musical careers and achieve fame in one of the most famous courts in Europe. The publication of Jakob Friedrich's works as far away as London and Copenhagen as well as Paris testifies to the esteem in which his compositions were held by his contemporaries. The latter admittedly paid tribute to the "zeal and artistry" behind his work rather than to the spirit of a "great genius"; yet his mastery of instrumental forms and the stylistic variety of his compositions remarkably illustrate the artistic transition and intellectual flourishing of his century. In 1750 the three Kleinknecht brothers were musicians at the court of Margrave Frederick III of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.

This selection of Trio Sonatas on period instruments is a rediscovery of a composer who is little known today and contributes to shedding light on the musical heritage of southern Germany in the pre-classical period.