Concertos & Ouvertures

In 1709, the music-loving Landgraf Ernst Ludwig from Darmstadt had discovered Christoph Graupner as a harpsichordist at the Hamburg Opera in 1709 and had hired him on the spot. The Landgraf had made a real stroke of luck with Graupner, because he was not only an outstanding musician but also a perfect organizer of the courtly musical life and especially for the church music which had to be performed weekly. Over the years, more than 1,400 works of sacred music and more than 250 concertos and orchestral works have gathered from his pen and paper. L'arpa festante and Rien Voskuilen have put together an exquisite selection with orchestral music from this repertoire for the present release: two concertos for oboes and trumpets and two Overtures for transverse flute in the French style, probably all from the first half of the 1730's.