Our inaugural program, Music for Exotic Instruments (12 minutes and 29 seconds), features the modern premiere of the Overture and Chaconne GW472 by Christof Graupner (1683-1760) for viola d’amore, oboe d’amore, traverso d’amore and strings. This performance by Ars Antigua directed by Jerry Fuller features soloists William Bauer, viola d’amore; Joyce Alper, oboe d’amore; and Cuauhtemoc Trejo, traverso d’amore.
Although the Overture and Chaconne by Christoph Graupner were known to musicologists since the 1950s, it was finally studied, edited, and prepared for performance in 2007 by Kim Clow, an independent music scholar in New York. Kim’s goal is to publish all of Graupner’s neglected orchestral works. Graupner was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach and was the first choice of the Leipzig town council to be Cantor at St Thomas Church , the post that subsequently went to Bach.