Daniel Gottlob Türk is best known for his influential pedagogical treatise Klavierschule (1789). His 48 inventive and varied keyboard sonatas were influenced by Sonatas of other North German composers such as CPE Bach and JW Hässler. The five historical keyboards employed in this recording reflect the diversity of the instruments available in Türk’s day. The twelve sonatas encompassed in his first and second collections show how the composer’s sensitive, at times dramatic, oratorical style relates beautifully to the nuanced expressive capabilities of these instruments.

This recording was made on period instruments:
CD1, Sonata No. 1: Spinet by Johann Heinrich Silbermann, Strasbourg, 1785
CD1, Sonata No. 2; CD2, Sonatas Nos. 4 & 6: Harpsichord by Joseph Kirkman [Kirckman], London, 17895
CD1, Sonata Nos. 3 & 6; CD2, Sonata No. 2: Fortepiano by Anton Martin Thӱm, Vienna, ca. 1815–20
CD1, Sonata No. 4; CD2, Sonata No. 3: Tangent Piano by Frantz Jacob Spath & Christoph Friedrich Schmahl, Regensburg, ca. 1780
CD1, sonata No. 5; CD2, Sonatas Nos. 1 & 5: Clavichord by Johann paul Kraemer & Sons, Göttingen, 1804