Description
This new album from the Altberg Ensemble includes overtures and suites of the small masters of the mature Baroque era; their work is being slowly discovered and restored to the concert repertoire. The album includes works by PH. H Erlebach, J.C.F. Fischer, J.S. Kusser, and J. Fischer.
The works presented on the album testify to the talent and craftsmanship of these lesser-known composers, who share the patronage of another composer, Jean Baptiste Lully, associated with the court of Louis XIV. Although he himself did not compose any cyclical dance form, it was the com-posers fascinated by his work who did it.
Initially, they studied with Lully or acted as copyists of his pieces; eventually, they gained popularity by travelling throughout Europe and contributed to the French influence on the German soil. The then national schools - Italian, French and German, as well as Polish - intertwine in the works presented on the album. The stylistically diverse dances create an interesting mosaic, vividly interpreted by an ensemble versed in historically informed performance on period instruments.