Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) crossed between the main European cultural centers of the 18th century to show his instrumental mastery and virtuosity as a violinist: Florence, London, Dresden, Venice... Everything seems to indicate that he had an eccentric and arrogant character, with enough intensity to make his way of playing something completely genuine. According to the musicologist Charles Burney, around 1733 there was no concert in London in which he did not participate with a violin solo. Giovanni Maria Casani, one of his teachers, expressed his opinion about him and his father: “Playing the violin together. One, old and full of honors, the other young and wanting to show the ease with which he overcame any slightest obstacle in the score. It was wonderful for everyone to listen to them, because the heart, and not just the bravery, guided and accompanied the fingers and the bow of these virtuosos”.

The collection he published in 1716 has twelve sonatas for violin or recorder and basso continuo, a "small essay on my musical studies." It is dedicated with much gratitude to the Elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, who supported Veracini to secure a position as a violinist at the Dresden court despite the fact that no violinist was needed at the time, a circumstance that produced more than notable tensions with Volumier, the conductor of the Dresden orchestra.

Here, Muriel Rochat Rienth performs the solo lines on recorder.

Telemann was a musician and composer who lived and worked in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, Frankfurt/Main, and Hamburg. He is considered the most important German composer of the late baroque era, and an extraordinarily productive musician with an oeuvre of over 3,600 works which cover all genres, including opera. He was one of the few artists of his era who was well respected during his lifetime, and he was able to live comfortably from his work as a musician. He was entirely self-taught, playing a variety of instruments, including the recorder, the violin, and the harpsichord. He was also a great proponent of the recorder, which is why he is often described as the greatest recorder composer. His work for the ‘flauto dolce’ includes solo concerts, suites, sonatas, trio sonatas, as well as extended recorder parts in oratorios, passions, and cantatas. Of special significance are the “12 Fantasias for Solo Flute,” published in Hamburg in 1733, which, along with the “36 Fantasias for Harpsichord,” the “12 Fantasias for Solo Violin,” and the “12 Fantasias for Viola da Gamba,” complement Telemann’s oeuvre for solo instruments without bass accompaniment. The “12 Fantasias” recorded on this album are based on a transposition for treble recorder which is stored in the library of the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels.