This program brings together two musical centers of the Baroque era that, at first glance, could hardly be more different: Dresden, with its Protestant heritage, which rose to become a magnificent royal residence under Augustus the Strong – and scholarly Bologna, with its venerable Accademia Filarmonica, the cradle of Italian instrumental music. And yet, both places are connected by a close network of personal relationships, travels, and transcriptions, which this program brings to life.

The Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka worked at the Dresden court from 1710 onward, first as a double bassist and later as a court composer. In 1715, a study trip lasting several years took him via Vienna to Italy, where, among other things, he deepened his mastery of counterpoint under Antonio Lotti in Venice – a typical educational path for Dresden court musicians, who were regularly sent south to perfect their skills.

The young Johann Gottfried Goldberg also owes his education to Dresden: in 1737, his patron, the Russian ambassador Count von Keyserlingk, brought him from Danzig to the Elbe, where he studied with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and eventually with Johann Sebastian Bach himself – those lessons that later gave rise to the legendary “Goldberg Variations”.

The actual link between the two cities, however, was a name that does not appear on paper in today’s program but is ever-present: Johann Georg Pisendel, Dresden’s famous concertmaster. On his travels to Italy, he copied a large number of works from the local violin schools and brought them back to the court orchestra’s famous sheet music collection, the so-called “Schrank II”. This also explains the nickname of Antonio Montanari’s Concerto in C major: the Roman violinist, who was active in Corelli’s circle, never set foot in Saxony himself – yet his concerto, transcribed by Pisendel, has been preserved as a “Dresden” manuscript and to this day bears witness to the Dresden court’s longing for Italy.

Bologna itself is represented in the program by Giovanni Battista Bassani, who was admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica in 1677 and was later even elected its “Principe” – one of the highest honors the city could bestow upon a musician. He is regarded by posterity – though this is not definitively proven – as the teacher of Arcangelo Corelli and thus as a pioneer of the clear, vocally-based violin sonatas that would go on to shape all of Europe from Bologna.

The “southern” counterpart in the title is provided by Francesco Durante and Alessandro Scarlatti, both key figures of the Neapolitan school: Durante as an influential teacher to an entire generation of composers, and Scarlatti as a pioneer of Italian chamber music between Rome and Naples. Their works embody that emotionally charged idiom – often permeated by melancholic lament – which stands in contrast to the courtly, ceremonial splendor of Dresden.

Thus, the program unfolds a web of connections – spanning travels, transcriptions, and teacher-student relationships – that demonstrates: The seemingly disparate musical worlds of the Saxon court and the Italian academies were engaged in a constant, fruitful exchange during the 18th century – a connection to which the ensemble Camerata Musikuss, with its close ties to both cities, remains committed to this day.