To the extent that he is remembered at all, the Dresden-born August Alexander Klengel (1783-1852) retains a toe-hold in music history thanks to a monumental set of 48 canon and fugues. But he was an important early-Romantic composer and celebrated piano virtuoso – and he was only distantly related to the later cello virtuoso Julius Klengel. Klengel enjoyed a reputation that stretched from St Petersburg to London; indeed, he lived in both cities for a while, although later returning to his native Dresden. This first recording of his piano and chamber music reveals a personality with a strong lyrical impulse, somewhere between Field, almost certainly an acquaintance during Klengel’s five years in the Russian capital, and Mendelssohn and Chopin, who were personal friends.

The principle task of the Trio Klengel founded in 2016 is to perform rare and forgotten chamber music. It takes its name from a trio founded a century ago by three daughters of the cellist Julius Klengel (Julius Röntgen’s father-in-law). This Trio Klengel consists of Keiko Yamaguchi (violin), Stefania Verità (cello) and Anna Petrova-Forster (piano).