In the rich musical life of early 18th century Prague, the Advent and Christmas seasons formed a chapter unto themselves. Their specific repertoire consisted not only of the themes of this liturgical season (including a strong element of the Marian cult), but also of special liturgical and musical forms. In both songs and figural music Czech suddenly appeared side by side with Latin, along with elements of folk religion and culture.

Ever newer chapters from the history of the bountiful musical life of Baroque Prague are still being discovered today. Until recently, František Jiránek, a composer and violinist of the Prague-based Count Morzin's chapel, had only been known to a select few. Now, for the first time, all lovers of old music are afforded the opportunity to listen to an exquisite collection of his virtuoso concertos. At first hearing, we can recognise inspiration by Vivaldi (combined with distinct elements of Czech musicality) - after all, Jiránek was sent by his employer to study in Venice, where most likely Antonio Vivaldi himself, at the time Morzin's "maestro di musica in Italia", was his teacher.

Whereas Vivaldi needs no introduction whatsoever and other names (Caldara, Fasch, Tůma) are familiar to lovers of Baroque music, even specialists have only been getting to know the remarkable oeuvres of Reichenauer and Jiránek over the past few years, owing in large part to Supraphon's Music From Eighteenth-Century Prague series. Prague is that which all these composers had in common; for some of them the city represented a significant part of their career, for others a short episode or merely a way station. The Czech capital was a melting pot in which Dresden, Vienna, Naples and Venice came together and the influences of all the major European musical centres were recast.

The only early eighteenth century composer from Czech-speaking lands to have gained much exposure in western Europe and North America has been Jan Dismas Zelenka. But there's a great deal of music left to discover from that culturally rich part of the world, where early music is a comparatively new concept. This Czech release, compiling performances from 2003 and 2005, examines two publications by composer Jan Josef Ignác Brentner, both with grandiloquent Latin titles: the Harmonica duodecatometria ecclesiastica, Op. 1, is a set of Latin sacred arias, issued in 1716; the Horae pomeridianae seu concertus cammerales sex, Op. 4, is a group of chamber concertos with diverse instrumentation, from 1720; they have some traits of the Italian concerto grosso.