One of the key German composers before Bach with more than 500 surviving individual pieces, Heinrich Schutz wrote mainly church music, and is credited with bringing the Italian style to Germany and continuing its evolution from the Renaissance into the early Baroque. Although he lived most of his long life in Germany, in his twenties Schutz made two visits to Venice. The first was between 1609 and 1613 when he was taught by Giovanni Gabrieli; and the second in the late 1620s to meet and possibly study under Monteverdi. The two trips greatly influenced Schutz's music as he absorbed and began to combine the ornate and theatrical Venetian style with the more understated Lutheran tradition in which he grew up. This album explores his solo cantatas alongside examples of the brilliant and virtuosic Venetian style instrumental music.

Tatty Theo and Carolyn Gibley, founder-cellist and harpsichordist of The Brook Street Band, perform the Sonatas for Viola da Gamba by J. S. and C. P. E. Bach, the first recording of these works to use a baroque cello. The Brook Street Band has easily earned its reputation as "the smartest new baroque band around (The Times). Among today's most notable Handel specialists, the group's founder, cellist , and harpsichordist, Carolyn Gibley, turn their attention for only the second time to the music of J. S. Bach as well as his son Carl Philip Emmanuel.

The Brook Street Band secured their place on the musical map with their Avie debut of the world-premiere recording of Handel’s “Oxford” Water Music, a delightful chamber version of the evergreen work. A Gramophone Editor’s Choice sealed the Brook Street Band’s Handelian credentials. They further proclaim their allegiance to the baroque master with this, their follow-up CD of the charming Trio Sonatas, Op. 5. Handel was a renowned recycler of his own music and these informal works are full of one familiar tune after the other. Treated to The Brook Street Band’s effervescent interpretations, this disc is another winner for the all-girl baroque band.

A rapacious dragon has been terrorising a Yorkshire village. Gubbins and his daughter Margery, together with Mauxalinda, decide to seek the help of Moore of Moore Hall. Moore needs persuading away from his beer but succumbs to Margery’s pleading, and her promises of love. Unfortunately, he had already promised to marry Mauxalinda, and so the love triangle has to be resolved in dramatic fashion before Moore heads out and defeats the dragon, restoring harmony and prosperity to the village. Following the BBC Music Magazine Opera Award for his recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master, conductor John Andrews returns with the world premiere professional recording of John Frederick Lampe’s operatic comedy The Dragon of Wantley. With librettist Henry Carey, Lampe combines a first-rate score with a quintessentially English plot, told in a tone of earthy satire, pastiching opera’s conventions with skill and affection, but also a razor wit.