From Biber’s famous ‘Guardian Angel’ Passacaglia to Guillemain’s ‘Amusements’ and sonatas and fantasias by Matteis (father and son), Pisendel and Vilsmayr, Isabelle Faust offers us a panorama of European music for unaccompanied violin from the second half of the Baroque era. Dreamy or virtuosic, these pieces bear witness to the diversity of inspirations from Italy, France, England and the German-speaking countries - and to their marvellous intermingling echoes.

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.

Johann Sebastian Bach, the newly appointed Cantor of the Thomaskirche, undertook his first official journey from Leipzig to nearby Störmthal in 1723, where he and his Thomanerchor inaugurated the beautiful new organ built by Zacharias Hildebrandt, a pupil of Silbermann. Bach was thrilled by the instrument’s splendid timbres and tonal beauty. A particularly beautiful violin was made by the German luthier David Tecchler in Rome — 1400 km from Störmthal — during that same year. Both instruments have survived and have been excellently restored; now, three hundred years after their creation, they meet for the first time.

Diese CD zeichnet das Porträt eines hervorragenden Musikers: Drei Violin- konzerte, drei Orchesterkonzerte, eine Fantasie für Orchester und die Alternativfassung eines Mittelsatzes bieten Musik, die an Vielfalt keine Wünsche offenläßt.​Ideenreichtum, Charme und eine ausgefeilte Kompositions- technik ergänzen sich zu einem Stil, der den besten Leistungen der Epoche nicht nachsteht.

Nach dem Tod des Dresdner Konzertmeisters Johann Georg Pisendel 1755 ließ Kurfürstin Maria Josepha dessen musikalischen Nachlass aufkaufen. In der Dresdner Hofkirche, in einem großen Schrank mit der Nummer II, wurde der musikalische Schatz aus eigenen und fremden Kompositionen eingelagert und hat sich über die Jahrhunderte hinweg erhalten. Nur ein geringer Teil dieses Repertoires ist allerdings bislang gesichtet, geschweige denn eingespielt worden, so dass die Batzdorfer Hofkapelle mit einigen Weltersteinspielungen aufwarten kann.

During the first half of the eighteenth century the Dresden court orchestra enjoyed international renown. Its excellence was on a par with those at Berlin, Paris and Vivaldi’s orchestra of ladies at the Pieta in Venice. The Enlightenment philosopher and amateur musician, Rousseau, rated it the most accomplished and best organized ensemble in Europe – and he had heard most of the competition. The Dresden achievement was largely thanks to Pisendel, who directed the court orchestra for over a quarter of a century and whose prowess as a violin virtuoso was probably unrivalled in Germany during his lifetime. Pisendel travelled, he knew Vivaldi and doubtless many other foreign musicians too, and he amassed a considerable number of their compositions which he copied or brought back with him to Dresden.