[...] While J. N. Forkel's theoretical work always remained the subject of reception to a certain extent, his compositional work, apart from a few printed works, received little attention during his lifetime and fell into oblivion even more so after his death. During his time as "Akademischer Konzertmeister" and "Musik-Direktor der Academie" in Göttingen between 1769 and 1813, Forkel wrote over 100 compositions, including the oratorio "Hiskias", six cantatas, 50 songs, 22 piano concertos, a symphony and numerous other piano works. Many of these compositions are likely to have been performed as part of his concert series or on other occasions in an academic setting. A large part of Forkel's musical oeuvre has been preserved in autographs and copies and is now mainly kept in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin under the call numbers Mus.ms. autogr. Forkel, J. N. 1 - 45 N. [...]
In Forkel's "Nachlass-Verzeichnis", numbers 443-449, a total of 22 piano concertos from his pen are listed; this genre thus occupies a prominent position in Forkel's oeuvre, who was considered an excellent piano player and probably performed all of these works in his concerts as a soloist on harpsichord and fortepiano. [...]
In the above-mentioned period of Forkel's piano concertos, he made the gradual transition from the harpsichord to the fortepiano. [...] The extant corpus of 12 of Forkel's concertos from the last third of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century provides an insight into the lines of development of the concerto form in this period which is worth knowing and which supplements our previous knowledge of the diversity of what was possible at the time. [...]
From the preface by Tobias Schwinger
