Trio Sonata in E major op. 4/1

As did most of the galant composers attached to the Berlin court of Frederick the Great, Carl Heinrich Graun wrote a significant number of trios [trio sonatas] that exist in versions with different scorings — for two violins (or two flutes) and continuo, for violin, flute and continuo, and for violin (or flute, or viola da gamba) and keyboard.

Of particular interest is this beautiful trio that has been come down to us in two different tonalities, E flat major and E major. The E major version, for two flutes and continuo, is found in a single source preserved at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. The transposition from the original key of E flat major, undertaken by the composer himself, places the work in a brighter tonality, albeit one that presents more of a challenge to players of the baroque flute.

That this trio was remarkably popular throughout the late Baroque and Classical periods is apparent from many surviving manuscript copies (of the E flat major version) that date from 1740 to 1800. It would moreover appear that the work was admired by other composers, including Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht who included it in a set of set of six trio sonatas, purportedly from his own pen, which he published in Paris, c.1750.