Music from 17th and 18th century Germany for two viols and continuo.

The title is taken from Conrad Höfler’s collection of suites for viola da gamba, titled in Latin “Primate Chelicae” and in German “Musikalische Erstlinge”: musical firsts. Höfler’s contemporary August Kühnel published the first trio sonatas for viols in Germany, incorporating the English art of playing divisions, having travelled to London to learn this skill from the famed English players.

Entering the eighteenth century, we encounter the fantasias for solo viol by Georg Philip Telemann, rediscovered only in 2015,  and the one surviving sonata for viol by Georg Frideric Handel, alongside music for German baroque lute by Silvius Leopard Weiss.

Finally, leaning towards the end of the baroque period, is a beautiful galant concerto by a later member of the Kühnel family for obbligato lute, viol and continuo.