In 2018, four friends studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London decided to form an ensemble they called Théodora. Mariamielle Lamagat (soprano), Louise Ayrton (baroque violin), Lucie Chabard (harpsichord) and Alice Trocellier (viola da gamba) explore French baroque music and its ramifications. For their first recording, part of Alpha Classics' "Baroque Stories" series, they decided to trace the French style in Germanic lands in the 18th century, where the dance forms, dotted rhythms, modulations and harmonies in vogue at the court of Louis XIV inspired composers to create numerous transcriptions, works and new instrumental practices... Johann Fischer and Johann Philipp Krieger make no secret of their admiration for Campra and Lully, whose music enjoyed considerable success across the Rhine.

This programme features their magnificent ‘Duo de la paix et de la félicité’ (Duet of Peace and Happiness), in a version preserved in Berlin, performed here with mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet... Bach is, of course, included: he admired the French organ school, particularly Jacques Boyvin, whose superb Récit tendre, from the Second Livre d'Orgue (1700), Théodora has transcribed for violin, viola and basso continuo.