Rediscovering music that has been forgotten or put aside for over 200 years is quite thrilling, especially when there are no recordings available. There are hundreds of interpretations available of almost every piece of music, hence it is almost impossible not get influenced by some of them. Recording Anton Franz Hoffmeister’s music gave us this unique chance to make it our own. We were positively surprised by its effect; his music is charged with freshness and virtuosity.

This was my first album with SOMM Recordings and I am most excited and grateful that they decided to make this CD titled Vol 1 in determination to record more of his enjoyable music which deserves to come down from those dusty shelves of history.

When just 14 years old Anton arrived in Vienna to study law but was soon so entranced by the city’s rich and varied musical life that, upon graduating, he decided to devote his life to music. By the 1780s he had become one of the city’s most popular composers with an extensive and varied catalogue of works to his credit. Hoffmeister’s reputation today, however, rests almost exclusively on his activities as a music publisher.

In 1785 he established one of Vienna’s first music publishing businesses – Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn are all represented in his vast catalogue, Mozart by several important first editions including the G minor Piano Quartet K478, and the single String Quartet in D K499, the ‘Hoffmeister’ Quartet. Hoffmeister’s publishing activities reached a peak in 1791 but thereafter seemed to take a back seat to composition. Although in 1799 together with the organist Ambrosius Kühnel he had founded the Bureau de Musique which would later grow into the well-respected firm of C.F. Peters, still active today.

As a composer Hoffmeister was highly respected by his contemporaries. He earned a well-deserved and wide-spread reputation for himself through the original content of his works, which are not only rich in emotional expression but also distinguished by the interesting and appropriate use of instruments and through good practicability. Prominent in Hoffmeister’s extensive oeuvre are works for the flute, not only concertos but also chamber works with the flute in a leading role. Besides flute music Hoffmeister also composed at least eight operas, over 50 symphonies, numerous concertos (at least 25 of these are for the flute), a large amount of string chamber music, piano music, and several collections of songs.

Before recording this CD, Hoffmeister’s music had never been presented to me. While studying I was never given his works to play or listen to. Hoffmeister was a name connected to a 'mediocre at best' composer – a shadow of Mozart and Beethoven. So we simply always concentrated on their works from that period. However I was aware that viola players actually played Hoffmeister’s music, as his viola concerto was one of the first classical concertos written for this instrument.

So, how did I become interested in Hoffmeister’s music? Simply by chance.

My partner, violinist Lana Trotovsek and I had always enjoyed performing together and often we were in search of new repertoire for flute and violin. It was during our research into the music of Hoffmeister that we discovered his Duos for flute and violin. We really enjoyed playing through the G major Duetto, now included on this CD. We were surprised to come across music which is well composed, flows so well and has such freshness and originality. Another surprise for us was how enthusiastically audiences responded to the G major Duetto. It quickly became part of our repertoire in concerts.

When we were planning our first CD for SOMM Recordings, the leading idea was to devote it to unexplored chamber music works. Hoffmeister's music was at the top of the list. Looking at his published Flute Quartet and Quintet scores, we were struck again by the richness of his invention and originality. The bonus was that according to our research, none of the music we chose had yet been recorded! Here it was great fun and a pleasure to work with the Piatti Quartet who further enriched the interpretation with their beautiful sense of style and personality.

Our plans for a follow-up exploring Hoffmeister’s Magic Flute are already well advanced and we very much look forward to present more of his music in Volume II.

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