Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728–1788) was an outstanding keyboard virtuoso and a talented improviser, but he left behind relatively few works, as he seemed to compose many sketches but complete only a few of them, when he was in just the right creative mood. His music can be traced stylistically to the empfindsamer Stil (sentimental style) which blended passages rich in emotional nuance and strong harmonic contrasts with expert use of rhetoric and counterpoint and sparkling improvisational techniques. The vast majority of his compositions are instrumental works, particularly works for keyboard. The pieces on this album represent the various key stages of the composer’s mature period.
The Duet in E flat is one of the very first musical scores to feature the word ‘fortepiano’, a sign of the burgeoning public interest in the new instrument that would become the keyboard of choice for the Romantic period, better equipped to reveal the performer’s state of mind than the more ‘mechanical’ harpsichord. The movement names (cantabile, con affetto) and performance instructions (dolce, crescendo, decrescendo) suggest the dynamic fortepiano, while the long trills and other embellishments are associated with the harpsichord tradition.
The Duet in C reveals the influence of J.C. Bach’s keyboard sonatas Op.5 and contains innovative elements combined with expert use of rhetorical gestures. The bright and elegant Divertimento in B flat plays with the emotions with varied, sometimes chivalrous writing.
The three sonatas for harpsichord, published in Nuremberg in 1756, were Müthel’s first publication. Their compositional style is highly idiomatic and eclectic, and the themes are developed confidently, with abrupt passages and sudden changes in emotion that epitomise Sturm und Drang writing.
