Johann Gottfried Müthel

Sonata In D Major

Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728-1790), German composer and keyboard virtuoso, despite his prominence of the time, has attracted little attention in the past centuries, though contemporaries have described his music as having an "individual character: mysterious, gloom, with unusual modulation, capricious in their course and obstinately opposed to the fashionable taste of his contemporaries." (Schubart) "His works are so full of new ideas, so full of taste, charm and artistic skill, that I would not hesitate to count them amongst the greatest products of our time." (Burney) This sonata for flute and cembalo, however, is neither "mysterious" nor "gloomy," but charming and cheerful. Editor Johann Philipp Hinnenthal has realized the bass in this edition, and the included optional viola da gamba/cello part could be used to further strengthen the bass.