Sigiswald Kuijken is one of the most important pioneers of the early music scene and celebrates his 80th birthday on 16 February 2024. Throughout his life as a musician, he has looked far beyond "classical violin playing". Even as a student, he explored baroque playing techniques on the violin and developed a milestone in historical violin playing without a support or chin rest, with the instrument resting freely on his shoulder. He learnt to play the viola da gamba at a young age as a self-taught musician. In 2004, he first advocated the revival of the violoncello da spalla – and played the shoulder cello, which was the actual basso continuo instrument in the Baroque period and was completely forgotten in the course of history. As a university teacher, Sigiswald Kuijken has influenced generations of musicians and recorded countless discs himself. To mark his anniversary, he presents himself and his audience with a very personal recording and introduces "his three instruments" – the violin, the viola da gamba and the violoncello da spalla – with selected unaccompanied solo works. The compositions are by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Thomas Baltzar, Diego Ortiz, Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Sebastian Bach. As a "personal treat", Kuijken also plays the Allemande from Bach's 2nd Cello Suite in ornamented form on the clavichord, just as Johann Sebastian himself probably presented his solo suites at home in his day.

Johann Friedrich Fasch was court bandmaster at the Saxon-Anhalt court in Zerbst, where there was a great interest in high-quality wind music, which is the only way to explain the large number of outstanding wind concerts given by Fasch. The great heyday of the Zerbst court ended soon after Fasch's death, the princely family died out and the castle fell into a deep sleep until it was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War. The fact that Fasch's music is still preserved today is due to the fact that the composer cultivated a lively exchange of works with famous colleagues such as Telemann, Pisendel and Graupner in Hamburg, Dresden and Darmstadt in order to enrich local musical life. Il Gardellino has unearthed some of Fasch's wonderful wind concertos in two CD productions, which are now available together as a double CD. Their colourfulness is unusual, as several wind instruments are always combined with each other – flute, oboe, trumpet, bassoon, sometimes with multiple instrumentation, also in combination with viola or violin – up to group concerts with up to seven solo instruments. A huge palette of tonal colours, interpreted by proven specialists in the early music scene – there's never a dull moment.

The trumpet had a special place in art music in the 17th century, as it was reserved exclusively for the emperor and the high nobility and was forbidden to the commoners and lower classes. Gradually, the trumpet was also used in church services on special occasions. In addition to the imperial Habsburg court in Vienna, the ecclesiastical bishoprics of Kremsier and Salzburg were musical centers where high-quality trumpet music was created. The trumpeter Jean-François Madeuf and his colleague Julian Zimmermann have researched the archives of these centers and present works for two (or four) trumpets by Schmelzer, Bertali, Biber, Rittler, Vejvanovský and Richter. The special thing about this is that they use pure natural trumpets - quite historically - without the auxiliary holes that appeared in the 1960s in order to be able to play some difficult semitones better. They will be accompanied by the ensemble The Rossetti Players under the direction of Barbara Konrad.

Chandos Anthems is usually associated with Handel's name – a collection of cantatas that Handel wrote as "house composer" for James Brydges, later Duke of Chandos and the richest man in England. From 1719 - Handel was concentrating on opera again - Johann Christoph Pepusch took over this task. The Duke was a great lover of the baroque riches of Italy and was able at his private chapel to circumvent the strict purist guidelines of the Anglican Church for church music, where no instruments were allowed in church music apart from the organ, and certainly no women. Pepusch, too, was a great friend of Venetian splendour; he came from Berlin and quickly made a career for himself in London from 1704 onwards; his "Beggar's Opera" achieved great fame. While the possibilities Handel had with the Duke of Chandos were still limited, Pepusch was able to draw from the full range: the ensemble grew beyond the chamber music group and a handful of singers to a small orchestra with multiple strings, organ/harpsichord, trumpet, bassoon, oboe and recorders. In addition, there was a choir of at least seven adult singers plus a number of trebles, which Pepusch knew how to use to good effect. Robert Rawson, a pronounced specialist in Pepusch's music, presents three large and colourful Pepusch anthems in a first recording with his Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen. The seven solo singers are beautifully supported by the Girl Choristers of Canterbury Cathedral.

Wondrous Machine - this is the title of an air from Purcell's Odes for St. Cecilia's Day, a hymn of praise to the music of which Cecilia is considered the patron saint, and to the instruments from the flute to the organ, of which she is considered the inventor. Not as an inventor, but as an innovative rediscoverer and ambassador of an equally "wondrous" instrument, namely the historical harp and its "entourage", is Margret Koell. She programmatically places the title "Wondrous Machine" above a project that present the mutability of the triple harp.

The programme focuses on George Frideric Handel: the Concerto Op. 7 No. 1 for harp, lute and orchestra is Koell's arrangement of the original concerto for organ and orchestra. The Concerto Op. 4 No. 6 is presented here for the first time in the extremely rarely heard version from 1736 for harp and lyrichord (viola organista) - the latter, a bowed keyboard instrument, is based on sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. With his sketch for another "wondrous machine", the flying machine "Ornithopter", da Vinci was once again the inspiration: for the new composition by Christof Dienz, which catapults the triple harp and lyrichord into the present. The programme is rounded off by interspersed Scottish tunes by the composer James Oswald.

It was literally "highly virtuosic" when the great composers of the 18th century brought together solo soprano and clarino trumpet in glorious praise of God. Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen" is a prominent example of this. That his courtly colleagues Jan Dismas Zelenka in Dresden and Christoph Graupner in Darmstadt were just as imaginative and effective when composing for their best interpreters is demonstrated by the ensemble Harmonie Universelle with Magdalene Harer (soprano) and Hannes Rux (trumpet) in the breathtaking solo parts.

Johann Joachim Quantz had already made a career as a flutist at the Dresden court in the chapels of Augustus the Strong when he was heard by the young Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia during a state visit to Berlin. He immediately engaged him as a flute teacher. Later, after he had been crowned king, he hired Quantz as a "court composer" without any obligation to play in the orchestra. His duties were to organise and conduct the royal evening concerts and to give flute lessons to the sovereign. This obligation gave rise to a large number of concertos, which are, however, little known because only three copies were ever made for the king's various residences, "pour Charlottenbourg", "pour Sans Souci" and "pour le nouveau Palais". Thus, in 2012, the recording of the renowned transverse flutist Frank Theuns was a great achievement, whose selection of four flute concertos by Johann Joachim Quantz are now available again on CD as a re-release.

Johann Sebastian Bach himself described the Ascension Oratorio "Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen" (BWV 11) as an "Oratorio Festo Ascensionis Christi". In the old Bach edition it was still classified under the cantatas, but with a duration of almost half an hour it clearly goes beyond the scope of Bach's classical cantatas. The cantatas for the two Sundays before (BWV 108 & 86) and the Sunday after (BWV 44) the Feast of Ascension complete the present programme, which Sigiswald Kuijken recorded with La Petite Bande as part of his series of Bach cantatas for all Sundays and feast days of the church year on 18 CDs between 2005 and 2014. The special charm of these recordings lies in the solo instrumentation of all instrumental and choral voices, which lends Bach's music a great transparency.

Only slowly is the German-Dutch composer and virtuoso Johann Wilhelm Wilms coming back into the public consciousness and his chamber music as well as symphonic works are being played again. Born in the Bergisches Land, he must have been a great musical talent, for he received instruction only in the village environment, then moved to Amsterdam at the age of 19, where he quickly made a name for himself as a flutist and piano virtuoso. His works were printed and he achieved great renown even beyond the Netherlands. But just as he had begun to shine, his star also sank again. After several strokes of fate, he withdrew from musical life in 1820 and composed very little.

Harmonie Universelle presents Willms' Clarinet Concerto (composed around 1815) and two concertante symphonies from 1814 as first recordings. Willms knew and revered the works of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven, which clearly influenced his style. His compositions are excellently crafted and definitely reveal his own spirit and great musicality. Harmonie Universelle has thus succeeded in taking an important step towards bringing this wonderful music back into the public eye.

ACCENT presents the complete recording of all Beethoven's works for piano and violin in a 4-CD box set, recorded in 2008/09 by Hiro Kurosaki and Linda Nicholson on period instruments. The order 'piano and violin' may come as a surprise: Even though Beethoven's ten violin sonatas mark the final turning point towards equal rights for the two instruments, the composer still explicitly described them as 'sonatas for piano and violin'. The special feature of this complete recording: Linda Nicholson and Hiro Kurosaki did not simply use instruments of historical design, but rather the appropriate historical Viennese instruments from Beethoven's time for each of the sonatas. Through this careful selection of instruments, the two musicians come as close as possible to Beethoven's sound. Another plus point of the project is the consideration of the otherwise neglected early works for this instrumentation, which thus also acquaint us with some rarities from the composer's pen that are worth hearing.

The granting of the postal monopoly for the entire empire brought the Thurn and Taxis court immeasurable wealth and Regensburg rose to become one of the most important music centres in the German-speaking world in the second half of the 18th century. Outstanding musicians were engaged for the court orchestra, the most important of whom was the oboist Giovanni Palestrini. His playing must have made a great impression on Prince Alexander and he was held in high esteem. For this reason, the Thurn and Taxis court library contains a strikingly large number of oboe concertos, over 100 in all, from which the renowned baroque oboist Xenia Löffler has selected four impressive examples by Franz Xaver Kerzelli, Joan Baptista Pla and Theodor von Schacht. The music is influenced by Viennese classical music, is full of wonderful melodies and radiates a great lightness. Schacht's concerto already shows the first traits of early Romanticism and, with three oboes as solo instruments, is a special case in music history. Xenia Löffler has enlisted her two equally renowned oboe colleagues Alfredo Bernardini and Michael Bosch for this cabinet piece.

The Salzburg court conductor Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber is known today as a composer of excellent violin literature. His works are appreciated by violinists for their great artistry and virtuosity. Max Gandolf, the art-minded prince archbishop of Salzburg, also appreciated the violin virtuoso at the time and brought Biber to his court. In public, Biber was mainly active at the cathedral in Salzburg, but Baroque splendour and representation were also in demand at the nearby residence: the same festive instrumental music was heard in the liturgy as well as at courtly ceremonies and banquets.

Biber's collection of twelve magnificent sonatas therefore bears the title "Sonatæ Tam Aris, quam Aulis Servientes" - "to be used both at the altars and in the banquet halls". The instrumentation of strings with two trumpets indicate festive occasions in the presence of the prince - in Salzburg it was customary for two trumpeters to blow fanfare pieces during the princely table in the Residenzhof. The twelve short trumpet duets from Biber's pen, which the Ensemble Harmonie Universelle placed between the twelve princely sonatas, are probably also related to this.

The PURCELL Choir was founded in 1990 in Budapest by György Vashegyi for the performance of Purcell’s Baroque opera Dido & Aeneas. Few suspected at the time that the group was to become the most respected choir in Hungary thirty years later. All the choir members are excellent professional singers, musicians and instrumentalists, and some of them are also members of other choirs and orchestras. The choir repertoire of the Purcell Choir ranges from works by Gesualdo to Mendelssohn, but they also perform pieces by later composers. Thanks to the three decades of continuous work with the founder, the choir’s sound and mastery of styles is always appreciated by international critics.

The choir’s regular partner in performances is ORFEO Orchestra which was founded in Budapest in 1991 also by György Vashegyi, receiving its name from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, following the first full performance of the opera in Hungary. The orchestra (since 1992 playing on period instruments) consists of professional musicians with international experience as either orchestra members or instrumental soloists. On this release, the musicians have selected a program of compositions by Michael Haydn, a composer widely respected during his life, but almost immediately forgotten after his death.

Bedrich Smetana's cycle "Má vlast" ("My Country") is not only the culmination of his symphonic output, it also occupies a unique position in Czech music and conveys a very special message of national character for Czech society. 'Sublime', one reviewer called the remarkable live performance of Smetana's Ma Vlast by an extended Collegium 1704 during the Prague Spring Festival of 2021. The Czech ensemble played on period instruments and thanks to the Czech conductor Václav Luks, Smetana's masterpiece is a “source of innovation, a living history that took listeners on a journey of pride and inspiration.” The album can only be described in one way: a must for every music lover.

La Petite Bande was founded in 1972 by Sigiswald Kuijken in order to record Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, under the direction of Gustav Leonhardt. The orchestra takes its name and constitution from Lully’s own orchestra at the court of Louis XIV. All its members are internationally renowned specialists in the early music field. On this new release, the ensemble has chosen a selection of Mozart operas, including Le Nozze di Figaro (CDs 1-3), Don Giovanni (CDs 4-6), and Cosi fan Tutti (CDs 7-9).