Considered equal to or even superior to Beethoven, Anton Eberl (1765-1807) was so popular during his lifetime that his works could be mistaken for compositions by Mozart. His Piano Sonata op. 1, for example, was published many times as Mozart's last great sonata. Eberl contributed magnificently to the Classical-Romantic stylistic turn and was thus a pioneer for later Romantic composers such as Schubert and Mendessohn. That Eberl has not been rediscovered earlier may be because it is very difficult to arrive at a satisfactory performance on modern instruments. His music, which combines the lightness of the Classical style with the melodiousness of Romanticism, becomes much more comprehensible when performed - as here - on instruments of its era. Eberl makes exquisite use of the idiosyncrasies and "unevenness" of the instruments of the budding 19th century, such as the chromatic coloration of the clarinet and the various registers of the fortepiano and cello. At the height of his fame, Eberl made concert tours to Prague, Dresden, Weimar, Berlin, Leipzig, Gotha, Frankfurt, and Mannheim. At his death he left an œuvre of about fifty opus numbers, most of them written after 1800. The Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung wrote on the occasion of this artist's early death that "there was such weeping for him as seldom happens." That the talent of this promising forerunner of the Romantic epoch was repeatedly rated lower in music history than that of the three "giants" Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven may seem justified - that he was completely forgotten, certainly not!