The Concerto for Lute RV 93, composed during Antonio Vivaldi's stay in Prague in 1729-30, is the most famous example of a repertoire that is almost completely neglected today, but was once extremely popular in the German-speaking world, especially in the Habsburg lands of Austria and Bohemia. Having presented us with a reference edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach (2022) and a representative anthology of the works of Silvius Leopold Weiss (2024), Evangelina Mascardi completes her trilogy on the 18th century by shedding light on a fundamental but hitherto largely neglected chapter in the history of the lute. Alongside the Vivaldi concerto, which guitarists have made one of his most celebrated works since the early 1960s, we find four genuine and virtually unknown gems, such as those composed by Joachim Bernard Hagen and Karl Ignaz Augustin Kohaut, now recorded for the first time. Accompanied by the Estrovagante orchestra under the direction of Riccardo Doni, Mascardi ventures into the rococo idiom, the stylistic context for the last virtuoso masterpieces of an instrument that can look back on a rich history but was to be definitively forgotten within a few years.

Antonio Vivaldi: Lautenkonzert D-Dur RV 93
+Bernhard Joachim Hagen: Lautenkonzert d-moll
+Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht: Lautenkonzert C-Dur
+Karl Kohaut: Lautenkonzert E-Dur
+Johann Ludwig Krebs: Lautenkonzert F-Dur Krebs-WV 203