From Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester
Celebrating the Carl Theodor Jubilee (1724–2024)
In tribute to Prince-Elector Carl Theodor (1724–1799)—the visionary patron behind the Mannheim Court Orchestra—Anders Muskens & Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester present four new albums in 2025.
Adriana Jacoba Fonds
Many listeners associate the Mannheim School with a narrow set of clichés—rockets, crescendos, and tidy galant and early-Classical formulas. But with this project, we aim to break those preconceptions and reveal a much richer and more diverse musical world under Prince-Elector Carl Theodor. His court attracted a wide array of visionary composers whose styles stretched far beyond textbook definitions.
Cannabich and Vogler were at the forefront of efforts to draw drama and music ever closer together, reshaping the expressive language of theatre. Their works explore Sturm und Drang psychological soundscapes, heightened character portrayal, and the extension of ballet into a proto-Romantic ballet en action. Additionally, Vogler, ever the visionary, also pursued an extraordinary agenda of cultural exchange. His extensive travels—including journeys to North Africa—inspired compositions that sought to represent the distinctive character of national melodies and folk traditions not as exotic curiosities but as authentic musical voices, making him a pioneering figure in what we might now call ethnomusicology and cultural anthropology. Meanwhile, Beck’s piano sonatas reveal a different facet of the Mannheim aesthetic: the refined sensuality of the rococo, combining the elegance of the French keyboard tradition with a fiery vitality inherited from his teacher, Johann Stamitz. Together, these composers reflect the breadth and complexity of Carl Theodor’s court—a crucible not only of style and taste, but of profound artistic innovation. These composers were not merely precursors to Mozart and Haydn—they were experimental, expressive, and often provocative in their own right.
The Carl Theodor Jubilee year invites an opportunity to look back at these artistic and cultural achievements and celebrate them, reigniting the bold visions and sublime sentiments of composers who were at the top of their game and forefront of innovation in teir day. This is still sensed through their music when it is performed with sensitivity to this context.
Army of Generals, Vol. 3: Shakespeare & Ovid in Mannheim
Release: 5 September 2025
This album features Georg Joseph Vogler’s Hamlet Symphony (1778) and Christian Cannabich’s Ceyx et Alcyone (1762–63)—two musical dramas deeply rooted in the expressive ideals of the Enlightenment. Vogler’s Hamlet unfolds as a compact music-drama, tracing the arc of the Danish prince’s grief, ghostly visions, feigned madness, vengeance, and spiraling melancholy in the stormy idiom of Sturm und Drang. In the narrative ballet Ceyx et Alcyone, Cannabich evokes the mythic pathos of Ovid’s 𝑀𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠 with mystical dances, central tempest scene, and richly textured orchestral colour. João Luís Veloso Paixão narrates both works, interweaving French texts adapted from Raymond and Charles de Massac’s Ovid and Antoine Houdar de La Motte’s Alcione (1706), enhancing the dramatic impact through a melodramatic format.
Co-directed by Anders Muskens from the harpsichord and concertmaster Rachael Beesley, these albums represent a bold revival of the theatrical and expressive ideals of the Mannheim court. With period instruments, rhetorical flair, and dramatic narration, Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester reclaims these neglected masterworks—offering a resonant tribute to Carl Theodor’s visionary cultural legacy.
This project was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, and Forschungszentrum HOF | MUSIK | STADT. More information will follow soon on the release.
Vogler: Travel Souvenirs for Keyboard
Release: April 2025
Travel Souvenirs for Keyboard – Georg Joseph Vogler features compositions by German composer Georg Joseph Vogler (1749 – 1814), performed on original instruments. Fortepianist Anders Muskens recorded on a Square Pianoforte by Longman & Broderip (John Geib), London 1788 (restored by Paul Kobald in 2018), and a Grand pianoforte by John Broadwood & Songs, London, 1806 (restored by Paul Kobald in 2022). He tuned and tempered the instruments (both from his own collection), using the method described by Vogler himself in 1807.
Vogler’s wanderlust inspired many of the pieces he composed, and he was well-regarded for his intricate, complex variation sets for keyboard, which he often improvised in dazzling public concerts on organ and fortepiano. The new recording includes a work from 1798 (Pieces de clavecin) and Variations sur l’Air de Marlborough from 1791. Georg Joseph, known as Abt or Abbé Vogler, never spent more than a few months in one place; he was always travelling, literally crisscrossing Europe, and even venturing to the Arctic Circle and North Africa. His fascination with folk melodies can be heard woven into his harmonic and structural innovations for keyboard.
Christian Cannabich: Médor et Angélique ou Roland Furieux
Release: 14 November 2025
This album presents Cannabich’s Médor et Angélique ou Roland Furieux (c. 1768), based on 𝑂𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜 𝐹𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑠𝑜 by Ludovico Ariosto. This narrative ballet begins in a tender, pastoral idiom steeped in French Baroque influence, where Angélique and Médor share moments of idyllic bliss through elegant, dance-driven tableaux. This serenity is violently interrupted by the arrival of Roland, whose discovery of their love sends him into a frenzied descent into madness. Cannabich’s music mirrors this narrative rupture with abrupt shifts in texture, rhythm, and tone—ultimately returning to a majestic calm with Roland’s grandiose entrance. João Luís Veloso Paixão again delivers dramatic narration between scenes, heightening the tension and drawing the listener deep into the emotional landscape of the ballet.
Co-directed by Anders Muskens from the harpsichord and concertmaster Rachael Beesley, these albums represent a bold revival of the theatrical and expressive ideals of the Mannheim court. With period instruments, rhetorical flair, and dramatic narration, Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester reclaims these neglected masterworks—offering a resonant tribute to Carl Theodor’s visionary cultural legacy.
This project was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, and Forschungszentrum HOF | MUSIK | STADT. More information will follow soon on the release.
Franz Ignaz Beck: Sonatas for Keyboard Op. 5
Release: June 2025
This album continues Muskens’ tribute to the Carl Theodor Jubilee Year (1724-2024) with compositions by German composer, violinist, director and keyboardist Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809), performed on original instruments. Muskens recorded this album on a Square Pianoforte by Longman & Broderip (John Geib), London 1788 (restored by Paul Kobald in 2018) from his own personal collection. Carl Theodor was a prominent regional monarch in German history, cultivating the Mannheim court orchestra; 2024 marks the 300th anniversary of his birth.
Franz Ignaz Beck was born in Mannheim, given his musical education by Johann Stamitz, famous composer, violin virtuoso and director of the Mannheim Court Orchestra. His early career was dramatically impacted by a duel during which his opponent feigned death. To avoid repercussions, Beck fled and travelled exensively throughout Italy, performing concerts and refining his compositional abilities. He settled in France, and later faced a tribunal during the French Revolution along with his entire theatre ensemble. Fortunately, he was proven innocent and continued as a central figure in Bordeaux’s cultural life until his death in 1809. He wrote symphonies, vocal and operatic works and keyboard sonatas. The 18 Sonates pour le Clavecin ou le Piano Forte were published in Paris around 1772 and are full of wit, charm, sensuality and coquetry.