Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert take a refined look at Christmas Concertos from the baroque masters. So that's Vivaldi, Handel, Corelli and plenty more.

The Swedish trumpet-player Niklas Eklund, born in Göteborg (Gothenburg) in 1969, trained at the School of Music and Musicology of Göteborg University. Further studies took place under the tutelage of Edward H. Tarr at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. After five years as solo trumpet with the Basle Radio Symphony Orchestra, he left the orchestra in the autumn of 1996 to further his career as a soloist. Since then he has appeared with leading ensembles and conductors such as Zubin Metha, John Eliot Gardiner, Heinz Holliger, András Schiff, Robert King, Eric Ericson, Reinhard Goebel, Gustav Leonhardt, the London Baroque, the Bach Ensemble (New York), the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble and the English Baroque Soloists.

Thuringia has always been a highly musical region. Along with the greats who resided there, including at times Schutz, Telemann, Bach and his sons, and Liszt, a closer examination reveals other Thuringian composers who indisputably contributed to the course of music history such as Johann Melchior Molter. This composer from Tiefenort was active in Eisenach and Karlsruhe and during his lifetime was regarded as one of the most productive and significant composers as well as a trailblazer participating in the transition from the Baroque to the classical era. On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his death Theater&Philharmonie Thringen has launched an editorial project in cooperation with the Institute of Musicology in Weimar-Jena.