Johann Mattheson was perhaps thinking of Johann Georg Pisendel when giving his treatise the title Der vollkommene Capellmeister (The perfect Kapellmeister), for Pisendel, who was born in 1687 and who had visited Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar and Georg Philipp Telemann in Eisenach during his apprenticeship, led the court orchestra in Dresden for many years, during which time the orchestra became one of Europe’s leading musical ensembles.

The dynamic musician also used his position to gain international experience, travelling with the court retinue to places such as Italy, where in Venice he met Antonio Vivaldi, whose works Pisendel later introduced north of the Alps. In contrast to the violin concerto or the concerto grosso, he strove for an all-inclusive “Concerto for Orchestra” in his own works, a concept which he succeeded in realising with the aid of the very capable and sophisticated Dresden orchestra. For their concert, the Berliner Barock Solisten perform works by Pisendel and other composers whose music was played at the Dresden court of his time including Telemann, Veracini, and Heinichen.

Gottfried von der Goltz, artistic director of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and internationally respected Baroque violin virtuoso, directs the performance from the concertmaster’s desk. For this pro-active type of ensemble direction, Pisendel was certainly among his role models: he conducted the Dresden orchestra from the violin section and influenced this kind of self-confident concertmaster who is being rediscovered in our times, and not only in the field of early music.