Franz Ignaz Danzi was a German cellist, composer and conductor, the son of the Italian cellist Innocenz Danzi (1730–1798) and brother of the noted singer Franzeska Danzi. Danzi lived at a significant time in the history of European music. His career, spanning the transition from the late Classical to the early Romantic styles, coincided with the origin of much of the music that lives in our concert halls and is familiar to contemporary classical-music audiences. In his youth he knew Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom he revered; he was a contemporary of Ludwig van Beethoven, about whom he — like many of his generation — had strong but mixed feelings and he was a mentor for the young Carl Maria von Weber, whose music he respected and promoted.

Francesca Lebrun was a celebrated German soprano associated with the court at Mannheim, as well as an accomplished composer of sonatas. As a singer, she was renowned for her vocal dexterity and was highly sought after by such notable composers as Anton Schweitzer, Ignaz Holzbauer, and Antonio Salieri to sing the lead roles in their most challenging operas. As a composer, her twelve sonatas for piano or harpsichord with violin accompaniment, six each in opus 1 and opus 2, were first published in London, England, in 1779–1781, with further editions in London, Paris, and several German centers. The opus 1 sonatas are available in commercial recordings.