The symphonic works featured on this 2CD set all come from a period during the second half of the eighteenth century that has come to be known as the “Age of Enlightenment” when Frederick the Second ruled over Prussia. Alongside acknowledged masterpieces by Mozart and Haydn, the program also includes pieces by Hasse, Graun and C.P.E Bach that are receiving their first ever recording. The music is performed by the rising stars of the Austrian Chamber Group “Modern Times_1800”.

Dresden was a music capital of European rank during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which means that this German city and baroque music have a common history. It was in Dresden that important composers and musicians of the time lived and worked. In 1991 graduates of the Dresden College of Music discovered their shared interest in this musical epoch and founded the Dresden Baroque Orchestra. Its members are committed to offering energetic interpretations on baroque instruments in keeping with the tenets of historical performance practice and to the rediscovery of forgotten works from the collection of the Dresden court chapel – top priorities for them that have also become their trademarks.

Charles Burney described Johann Adolf Hasse, his contemporary, as ‘the most natural, elegant and judicious composer of vocal music, as well as the most voluminous now alive…’ His output includes 63 operas, but only two are currently recorded, yet inexplicably this is the second Piramo, albeit markedly livelier and with the bonus of its two ballet suites. Schneider’s perceptive booklet note comments that too readily we find such composers immature – ‘almost like Mozart’, rather than excitingly expressive and individual. Here even the subtitle Intermezzo tragico is novel, implying a fusion of two traditions, comic and serious. The music is equally unconventional. Recitatives slip seamlessly into and out of arias, creating a strong sense of dramatic continuity.

These recordings were produced in the 1980s by the Radio of the German Democratic Republic from performances given in the historic Catholic Court Church in Dresden.

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Mary-Ellen Nesi presents thirteen arias most of them recorded here for the first time inspired by ten Greek female archetypes. George Petrou and the brilliant Armonia Atenea add fire to this exciting collection of 18th-century masterpieces. MDG listeners will be familiar with Mary-Ellen Nesi from several outstanding Handel recordings. In her most recent recital the acclaimed mezzo-soprano turns to dramatic roles from Baroque and classical operas.

The Venice Baroque Orchestra and a fine line-up of singers present a pasticcio setting of a libretto by Metastasio, with contributions from composers including Caldara, Vivaldi, Galuppi, Hasse and Paisiello. In the eighteenth century, 1,300 years after the last Olympic Games in ancient times, the Olympic theme was highly fashionable. Many composers based operas on the libretto L'Olimpiade by Metastasio. This recording has been structured to contain all of Metastasio’s original arias; it is a pasticcio in the sense that the music is by 16 different composers amongst the many that set the libretto between 1733 and the end of the century.

This 3CD box unites three recitals that showcase the virtuosity, elegance and expressivity of mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux. Together, the programmes, recorded between 2003 and 2009, offer a survey of the repertoire that has figured most strongly in Genaux’s career – music from the 18th and early 19th centuries by Vivaldi, Handel, Hasse, Rossini and Donizetti. The spectacular recital of arias by Vivaldi, ‘Pyrotechnics’ was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2010.

Hasse was 52 when he composed the Mass in D minor recorded here, but in every way – in form, affect, and aesthetics – Hasse belongs more to the generation of the much younger Haydn than to that of Bach. His Mass in D minor is thoroughly a work of the Enlightenment: symmetrical, lucidly rational, celebratory rather than penitent, 'public' rather than personal, a concert of elegant music rather than an outpouring of spiritual energy. It's not as great a work as Bach's – let us not be unclear about that – but it's a wonderful composition in its own way. If you have heard and appreciated the Haydn and Mozart masses, you'll find this mass quite as excellent as those. In fact, Hasse's mass sounds very much like Haydn at his best, in the masses that Haydn wrote 40-some years later for Esterhazy occasions.

Imme-Jeanne Klett clearly demonstrates on this recording that one particular solo instrument had a very special place in the affections of the German baroque composer Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783): the flute. For no other instrument did he write as many concertos and chamber music works.

The rediscovery of the almost forgotten opera seria repertory of the 18th century has led to spectacular aria recitals by stars as big as Renée Fleming as well as a host of European and American specialists. Recordings of entire operas, other than those by Handel, have been a good deal rarer; even Vivaldi hasn't really gotten his due. Now comes this major-label release of an opera by Johann Adolf Hasse, a German composer who conquered Italy (they called him "Il Caro Sassone," the dear Saxon) and married one of the leading sopranos of the age, Faustina Bordoni. Siroe is an adapation of a story also set by Handel, in a slightly different version; the libretto here is by Pietro Metastasio, despite his cancer-evoking name the most famous operatic dramatist of the century.

Les Castrats furent les premières « stars » de l'histoire de la musique. Ils tenaient souvent le rôle-titre (et à Rome tous les rôles féminins des opéras), créant sur le plateau une véritable compétition de virtuosité et d'émotion entre les chanteurs, dont le public était l'arbitre par ses demandes de bis. Et si trois des meilleurs interprètes de notre temps faisaient eux aussi ce Concours de Virtuosité ? Voici Valer Sabadus (Arad, 1986), Filippo Mineccia (Florence, 1981), et Samuel Mariño (Caracas, 1993). Airs virtuoses, duos d'amour et trios combatifs faisaient triompher les Castrats : à chacun de trouver son vainqueur !

The debut album from countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński – born in Warsaw, trained at New York’s Juilliard School, and 2016 winner of the Metropolitan Opera's prestigious National Council Auditions – Anima sacra features what are believed to be world premiere recordings of eight Baroque arias, notably by composers of the Neapolitan school. Orliński is partnered by Il pomo d’oro conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.

The first half of the 18th century saw an insatiable demand for new opera seria, or dramma per musica, in Venice, Rome, Milan and, principally, London, where composer and teacher Nicola Porpora ran the Opera of the Nobility, putting poor Handel very firmly (though temporarily) in the shade. This collection of castrato arias includes six astonishing discoveries, many recorded for the first time, from Porpora, Johann Aldolf Hasse and Giuseppe de Majo, sung by the beguilingly agile Simone Kermes with delightfully pungent playing from La Magnifica Comunità.

In the last period of his life, Hasse, together with Faustina Bordoni, settled in Venice. At this time, he devotes himself almost exclusively to composing sacred music. However, in 1775 - 1776, two remarkable cantatas, written on the text of his friend Pietro Metastasio, saw the light.

LAVA is a collection of rediscovered opera gems from 18th century Naples, performed by soprano Simone Kermes and the period instrument ensemble Le Musiche Nove. Musical direction is by Claudio Osele, the Italian musicologist and conductor who worked with Cecilia Bartoli on four of her successful concept albums, including the Grammy-winning Vivaldi and Gluck releases for which he delivered the concept and prepared the performing editions. Naples and Versuvius provide the linking theme between all of the pieces, nine of which are world premiere recordings (all tracks except those by Pergolesi)