Johann Baptist Cramer

Three Sonatas for piano

This edition is the beginning of a new series in which editions from the archive of Robert Lienau which had not been available for a long time are now being reprinted. Johann Baptist Cramer was born in Mannheim on February 24, 1771. At the age of three, he moved to London with his parents where he received piano lessons by M. Clementi and J.S. Schröter. He was also a pupil of C.F. Abel where he studied composition. His father was one of the most eminent violin virtuosos in his time and he built his son up as a child prodigy. At the early age of 13, Cramer had his first public performance together with Clementi. After his first European tour he became one of England's leading pianists. He lived in Paris between 1832 and 1845, subsequently returning to London for good. There he founded his own music publishing company J.B. Cramer & Cie., which he managed until his death on April 16, 1858. Soon little more was known of Cramer than his didactic works. In fact, Cramer wrote 105 piano sonatas whose outstanding feature is their classical balance. The three sonatas in E flat/D/E flat published by Schlesinger in 1816 can lay claim to more than mere historical interest. Originally, their opus number was 30. In the new edition of the encyclopaedia Music in History and the Present they are listed as opus 25.