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Tricklir's earliest published works, a set of three cello concertos issued in Berlin and Amsterdam in 1782, date from his time in Mainz. Six sonatas for cello and basso continuo were also published in Paris in the early 1780s. The performer-composer's value was clearly recognised by the Saxon court in Dresden, which, despite the long decline in its support for music, remained a significant employer of musicians. Tricklir entered the service of the Saxon elector in March 1783 and, with dispensations to make concert tours to England and France, remained in Dresden until his death on 29 November 1813. It seems likely that Tricklir took part in the concert Mozart gave at the Residenzschloss in Dresden.
Tricklir was the one of the greatest masters of the cello and also a "tasteful" composer for his instrument. Tricklir was the one of the finest cellists of the late eighteenth century, and a highly appreciated artist. Tricklir's unpublished treatise of 1785, entitled Le microcosme musical ouvrage, includes details of a device intended to combat the influence of atmospheric conditions on the tuning of stringed instruments. "It was, however, an illusion, and this imaginary invention disappeared as quickly as it had originated," states Von Wasieliewski. Even so, the invention was discussed and assessed in Cramer's influential Magazin der Musik during Tricklir's lifetime.
Tricklir was born in Dijon in 1750 to a family of German descent. His date of birth remains unknown, although early biographers provide intriguing strands of information about his childhood and youthful passion for music. Young Jean-Balthasar was destined by his parents to serve the church. The boy's preparation for the priesthood included lessons on the violin and, later, the cello. His musical studies swiftly came to rival and surpass his interest in matters ecclesiastical and, at the age of 15, he left Dijon to refine his cello technique in Mannheim, the recently built city and home to the increasingly powerful Electors Palatine of the Rhine.
Tricklir remained in the musically adventurous German city until 1768, honing his skills as a cellist and, no doubt, profiting from the experience of living in what one contemporary observer described as a musician's paradise.
The generally favourable assessment of contemporaries and later historians of the cello and its development is supported in Tricklir's case by contributions he made to the advancement of his instrument's technique. In brief, he introduced aspects of French and German technique into his compositions, the former turned to advantage in passages from the cello concertos containing thumb-position octave and tenth figurations played on adjacent strings. Tricklir's thirteen surviving cello concertos, including one edited and published in 1787 as the composer's Fourth Concerto by Jean-Louis Duport, exploit the instrument's full range and routinely project melodies that favour the rich sonorities of the С string.
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