• Tracks

Franz Anton Hoffmeister occupied an important place in Viennese musical and cultural life. He was much respected as a publisher - his firm published works by Mozart and Haydn, and he was friendly with Beethoven - but also as a composer. He wrote at least eight operas, a substantial number of symphonies, and a large amount of music for the flute, a popular instrument amongst the wealthy amateurs of the time. He also wrote expressively and rewardingly for the piano, which had a similarly wide audience.

Given Franz Anton Hoffmeister's pivotal role in Viennese musical life, as both publisher and composer, it is not surprising that he wrote a significant body of music for the piano. The sonatas are not merely the preserve of the sophisticated amateurs for whom they were written. As his contemporaries observed, Hoffmeister's music showed original and expressive features, and the sonatas which survive in numerous handwritten copies were some of his most popular and admired works of the time.