For forty years the Bohemian composer Leopold Koželuch produced a sequence of keyboard sonatas that some commentators preferred to those of his great contemporary, Mozart. The four sonatas on Volume 8 exemplify Koželuch’s vitality and expressive breadth. Sonatas Nos. 31 and 32, published in the year of Mozart’s death, are notable for their exploration of new technical devices and a daring harmonic palette worthy of Clementi.

This recording was made on a period instrument: Fortepiano by Paul Downie (NZ), after Anton Walter (c. 1795)