It was not uncommon for 17th-century painters to depict music-making or musical instruments: a lute or viola da gamba resting in the artist’s studio, a warm, resonant presence beside the easel and rolled canvases, offering solace, focus, and the promise of inspiration. The music on this album, however, is far removed from the domestic scenes portrayed in such paintings. It places formidable demands on the performer and was written by two of the greatest viola da gamba virtuosi in musical history.

In this album, Johanna Rose continues her exploration of the repertory by two towering figures of the instrument: Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray. As the contemporary writer Hubert Le Blanc famously observed, “Marais played like an angel, Forqueray like the devil.” Forqueray’s music was so technically demanding that, according to the Mercure de France in 1738, “only he and his son could play it.”