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 discov-ered 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 patron-age 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 - inter-twine 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.
