Der Spiegel 06.07.2024

Like the Mona Lisa for the Louvre, Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert is a showcase for ECM. With 4 million copies sold, it is not only the biggest success in the label's history but also the best-selling piano solo album! And many of those who bought this live recording, recorded on January 24, 1975 in the Cologne Opera House, did not yet own a jazz album in their record collection.

Johann Philipp Kirnberger is not one of the great composers in the history of music, but he has a secure spot in musical history as a prominent theorist. His main work Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik is well known among music historians. As a composer he was forgotten for a long time, undeservedly so, as some of his compositions which are played today and the present recording of six of his trio sonatas may prove. Like most of Kirnberger’s compositions, these trios were not printed during his lifetime, but exist in manuscript form as part of Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia’s musical collection, the so-called Amalia Library which is preserved in the Staatsbibliothek (State Library) in Berlin. It is not possible to date the origin of these trio sonatas.

Johann Philipp Kirnberger is not one of the great composers in the history of music, but he has a secure spot in musical history as a prominent theorist. His main work Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik is well known among music historians. As a composer he was forgotten for a long time, undeservedly so, as some of his compositions which are played today and the present recording of six of his trio sonatas may prove. Like most of Kirnberger’s compositions, these trios were not printed during his lifetime, but exist in manuscript form as part of Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia’s musical collection, the so-called Amalia Library which is preserved in the Staatsbibliothek (State Library) in Berlin. It is not possible to date the origin of these trio sonatas.