The city of Dresden was a magnificent and sumptuous setting for culture and the arts in the middle of the 18th century, espe­cially for music, and indeed, one of the most famed and admired orchestras of the time was to be found there. With its focus on religious music, the present re­cording provides a reflection of this golden age, while pointing up the differences which existed between two separate periods at the Dresden court: the first came under the in­fluence of French musical taste (1670-1733) and in it the highly distinctive, very personal style of Jan Dismas Zelenka was developed, whilst the other, lively and monumental (1733-1764) and headed by Johann Adolph Hasse, bore Italian influences. The baroque ensemble Accademia Barocca Lucernensis (ABL) was founded in 2014 by the conductor Javier Ulises Illán and the cultural mana­ger Martin Caduff in Lucerne (Switzerland). ABL comprises both an orchestra and a choir, and follows historically informed performance practices on period instruments and with period tunings.