Photo: Heinrich Eduard Winter · Public domain · credits
Tier 3 · vertical & regional
Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel
Person · male · Kingdom of Bavaria · Würzburg · born 1750 · died 1817 · recording since 2014
German composer and pianist (1750-1817)
Also known as Franz Xaver Sterkel · JFX Sterkel · ヨハン・フランツ・クサヴァー・シュテルケル
Timeline
6 events▣ Album 3◦ Birth 1† Death 1★ Debut release 1
1750s
1810s
2010s
· Debut release
Debut release: Symphonies / Ouverture à Grand Orchestre
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
2020s
Biography
English biography240 words · 1 sectionssource: wikipedia-en · licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1324654561
Biography
Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel (3 December 1750 in Würzburg – 12 October 1817 in Würzburg) was a German composer and pianist in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
He was educated at the University of Würzburg and in 1778 he became chaplain and musician at the court in Mainz. He lived in Regensburg (from 1802 to 1810), then in Aschaffenburg, and finally retired to Würzburg in 1815.
At first Sterkel was an organist in Neumünster. In 1774 he was ordained a priest. He moved to Mainz and became court chaplain, but toured Italy as a pianist from 1779 to 1782. After a visit to Italy in 1782, where he met Padre Martini, he returned to Mainz, becoming music director to the Electoral orchestra in 1793.
From 1793 to 1797 he was court Kapellmeister at Mainz. When the capella was disbanded, he went to Würzburg, Regensburg and later Aschaffenburg, where he served the Grand Duke of Frankfurt.
From 1810 to 1814, as a prolific and successful composer he wrote mostly instrumental music, including symphonies and concertos, chamber works with keyboard solo, piano sonatas and piano duets.
Many of the sonatas have a lyricism and loose-knit structure pointing towards Franz Schubert. Among his vocal works are the Italian opera Farnace (Naples, 1782), Italian arias, songs and ensembles and German lieder. His works as well as his distinctive playing style (which impressed Beethoven in 1791) contributed to the development of a pianistic idiom.
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 12 | 64.8th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 3 | 77.1th |
| Studio albums | 3 | 80.9th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 6 | 80.8th |
| Recording span (years) | -197 | 3.4th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (3 release groups · 3 studio albums)
Albums · 3
Symphonies / Ouverture à Grand Orchestre
2014 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 9 tracks · 36:48
1Symphony, op. 35 no. 1 in D major: I. Allegro con spirito8:582Symphony, op. 35 no. 1 in D major: II. Larghetto3Symphony, op. 35 no. 1 in D major: III. Menuetto. Allegro - Trio4Symphony, op. 35 no. 1 in D major: IV. Allegro vivace5Symphony, op. 35 no. 2 in B-flat major: I. Largo - Allegro assai7:546Symphony, op. 35 no. 2 in B-flat major: II. Adagio un poco7:597Symphony, op. 35 no. 2 in B-flat major: III. Menuetto. Allegro - Trio8Symphony, op. 35 no. 2 in B-flat major: IV. Presto9Ouverture à Grand Orchestre11:57Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin
2018 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 9 tracks · 1:14:14
1Sonata in F major, op. 33 no. 1: Allegro11:102Sonata in F major, op. 33 no. 1: Andante con variazioni9:253Fantasia in A minor, op. 456:564Sonata in B-flat major, op. 25: Allegro cantabile13:145Sonata in B-flat major, op. 25: Cantabile6:486Sonata in B-flat major, op. 25: Allegro un poco vivace6:517Romance in F major, op. 24 no. 32:478Sonata in A major, op. 33 no. 3: Allegro8:559Sonata in A major, op. 33 no. 3: Rondo8:08Symphonies, op. 11/2 & 11/3 / Piano Concerto, op. 26/3
2025 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 9 tracks · 1:07:51
1Symphony in E-flat major, op. 11 no. 3, StWV 127/3: I. Allegro8:142Symphony in E-flat major, op. 11 no. 3, StWV 127/3: II. Andante3:473Symphony in E-flat major, op. 11 no. 3, StWV 127/3: III. Prestissimo4:484Piano Concert in C major, op. 26 no. 3, StWV 151: I. Allegro17:325Piano Concert in C major, op. 26 no. 3, StWV 151: II. Largo cantabile10:136Piano Concert in C major, op. 26 no. 3, StWV 151: III. Rondo. Presto9:407Symphony in C major, op. 11 no. 2, StWV 127/2: I. Allegro5:428Symphony in C major, op. 11 no. 2, StWV 127/2: II. Andante4:119Symphony in C major, op. 11 no. 2, StWV 127/2: III. Presto3:44
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 12 | 64.8th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 3 | 77.1th |
| Studio albums | 3 | 80.9th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 6 | 80.8th |
| Recording span (years) | -197 | 3.4th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Awards & honours
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franz_Xaver_Sterkel.jpgaliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/308606a5-cbf2-49c8-861a-a7ef68354a34discography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/308606a5-cbf2-49c8-861a-a7ef68354a34core—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q474103genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q474103seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Franz_Xaver_Sterkelbiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Franz_Xaver_Sterkel
Why this artist is in the database
- List of composers by name
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: Heinrich Eduard Winter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q474103 · MusicBrainz: 308606a5-cbf2-49c8-861a-a7ef68354a34
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