Weiss / Beier - Dresden Manuscript, Vol. 1 - Paul Beier [CD]

Sylvius Leopold Weiss was born in the then Bohemian province of Silesia (now in Poland) in 1687 and grew up under thestrong influence of Losy, which can be seen clearly in his early compositions. After his Italian sojourn (1710-14), Weiss became deeplyinvolved with the Prague musical milieu and, according to numerous documents, he must have spent much time there even after hewas invited by Augustus the Strong, on the 23rd of August 1718, to become an "Electoral Saxon and Royal Polish Chamber Musician"at his court in Dresden. In the years between 1717 and 1724 he worked closely with Johann Christian Anthoni von Adlersfeld at thePrague Music Academy to create one of most extensive collections of his music ever assembled, what we now know as the "LondonManuscript." Also, in this period he worked with the Prague lute maker Thomas Edlinger to improve upon the 11-course instrumentnormally used by adding two bass courses to extend it's range. Two different solutions were possible: using thicker or slightly longerstrings. The thicker strings didn't sound very good, so the extra length was decided upon. The added bass courses were placed on a newfangledcontraption attached to the side of the pegbox, called a "bass-rider." This is the kind of lute I play for this recording. By the way,lutes were strung in gut and not in metal, as they often are today, and I have continued this tradition for the present recording.The Dresden manuscript includes many of Weiss's best-known works that are found in other manuscripts as well, but it alsocontains a number of expansive sonatas composed late in life that are unique to this source. A few of them are in Weiss's own hand, butthe rest were probably copied by the Saxon minister for war, Friedrich Wilhelm Raschke, who, according to Crawford, "seems to havegained access to what must have been Weiss's personal archive of music."