The lute played a significant role in the history of music of the 16th century, but it lost its global importance towards the end of the 17th century. In Germany, however, the lute enjoyed its final flowering in the 18th century with compositions by Silvius Leopold Weiss, Adam Falckenhagen and Bernhard Joachim Hagen. For this new recording, Held has selected a program of works from this last generation of German lute literature. The works of Weiss are widely known and appreciated and is represented with the early Suite in A Major. Our program also includes selections from the "modernistic" lutanist/composers Falckenhagen and Hagen - whose Sonatas clearly show the influence not only of Weiss but of the nascent "Gallant" style and the musical "Empfindsamkeit" ("Sensibility") or C. P. E. Bach. Also included are two contemporary arrangements of excerpts from the operas of Hasse and Händel.

Joachim Held (Lute). Born in 1963 in Hamburg, Joachim Held received his musical training at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Eugen Dombois and Hopkinson Smith. In 1988 he finished his studies by attaining a Diploma for Early Music. From 1988 to 1990 he studied with Jürgen Hübscher at the College of Music in Karlsruhe and passed the Artistic Final Examination there.
In 1990 Joachim Held won second prize at the Concours Musica Antiqua at the Flanders Festival in Bruges. He held a teaching post for lute from 1990 to 1997 at the Music College in Heidelberg-Mannheim. He teaches at the Conservatory in Hamburg since 1997. Joachim Held plays regularly under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and works together on a regular basis with Giardino Armanico (Milan).