Born in Bohemia in 1656 Fischer’s early musical educative experiences seem to have been lost. He was at the Piarist College in Schlackenwerth and clearly travelled. But our next substantive detail is that by 1690 he was court conductor at Sachsen-Lauenburg. The complexities of the marriages, regencies and instabilities of late seventeenth century nobility are briefly alluded to in the notes but what matters, as far as Fischer is concerned, is that the bulk of his printed compositions date from the years 1690-1715.

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was Director of Music in Halle from 1746 to 1764. This position was in many respects similar to that of Johann Sebastian Bach’s in Leipzig. Certainly, in performing his duties Friedemann Bach largely followed the example of his father – whether in matters of organ playing, choice of repertoire or making demands of the musicians. W. F. Bach was required to perform a cantata every third week and also on all feast days. The cantatas and Mass compositions performed here for the first time are works from this era – outstanding artistic contributions to the genre of the church cantata after J. S. Bach. Under the direction of Jürgen Ochs the eight singers of the Rastatter Hofkapelle perform both the choral as well as solo passages.