At around the same time as George Frideric Handel, Johann David Heinichen, a pupil at St Thomas's School in Leipzig, set off on a grand tour to Italy in 1710. The trained lawyer could no longer resist his urge for music and was promptly and richly rewarded for his grand tour. He was swept along by the musical trends of the day. The music of Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti and Francesco Gasparini had an immediate effect on him, whilst the masters of the time, such as Monteverdi and Carissimi, exerted a more indirect influence - and when he returned home in 1716, he was no longer the same man. He soon became Kapellmeister at the Dresden court, to which he made significant contributions until later in life (1729). Among other things, Heinichen left behind some fifty solo cantatas. Five of these enchanting, Italian-inspired opera scenes in pocket-sized form make up the programme of this production, whose soloist has mastered emotions in all of their facets and transformed them into sound.
