Most of the career of Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746) took place in the South German Rastatt, where he was court chapel master at the court of the counts of Baden. He came from Bohemia, was probably educated in the monastery of Schlackenwerth and probably learned the current French style of Lully through musicians working there. Via a few detours, Fischer ended up at court in Rastatt,
… where he mainly had to write church music, as his employers thought religious music was more important than maintaining a court culture full of (musical) splendor. This CD contains a selection from that church music, supplemented by some earlier works. The most striking thing about this music is the great wealth of forms of expression, which is created with relatively modest means. The trumpets in the 'Concertus de Sancta Cruce' testify to great festivity, in which the sacrifice of the cross is glorified. The trumpets also play a prominent role in the antiphone 'Regina coeli laetare'. Rastatt is not exactly a mundane place and was already a court of only modest importance at the time. But it is typical of the richness of the church musical traditions of yesteryear that a musician of the size of Fischer was appointed and music of such quality was composed and performed. (JvG) But it is typical of the richness of the church-musical traditions of yesteryear that a musician of Fischer's stature was appointed and music of such quality was composed and performed. (JvG) But it is typical of the richness of the church musical traditions of yesteryear that a musician of the size of Fischer was appointed and music of such quality was composed and performed. (JvG)more