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Sterkel: Piano Quartet; 2 Piano Trios on CD

According to the words of a contemporary, Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel was said to have played the fortepiano in a "somewhat ladylike" manner. Whether this was a subjective impression or an actual characteristic is up for debate, but it certainly did nothing to diminish the reputation of the virtuoso musician, composer, and priest. On the contrary, he was one of the most popular pianists of his time. Both Beethoven and Weber held him in high esteem, and his ecclesiastical superiors had him adorn their leisure hours with his music. He became Kapellmeister to the Elector of Mainz and eventually headed the music school in Augsburg. In addition to an opera and nearly a dozen symphonies, he produced a significant number of piano trios and quartets, in which classical structure is enlivened with original ideas - at times lively and rustic, at other times almost romantically introspective, and then again robust and boisterous, but never "ladylike."