Concertos pour hautbois

Description

Johann Gottlieb Graun was a member of the small court orchestra of Frederick II in Ruppin, a historic district in northeastern Germany, where he was joined in 1735 by his younger brother Carl Heinrich Graun. With Frederick's accession to the throne in 1740, Johann Gottlieb was appointed Konzertmeister and Carl Heinrich kapellmeister at the royal court. It is difficult to determine which of the two brothers wrote the oboe concertos recorded here; what is certain, however, is that the name "Graun" was a guarantee of musical quality at that time. Oboist Xenia Löffler has distinguished herself as a specialist in the North German repertoire of this period, as evidenced by her recordings of concertos from the Dresden court.