‘From Heaven on Earth’ features a brand new discovery of lute music never published or heard before. Composed by a Benedictine monk who was known as lutenist at the beginning of 18th century: Pater Ferdinand Fischer.

Challenge Classics presents the premier recordings of three highly original suites by Fischer where the listener can hear the knowledge and influence of both French and German lute masters. Ars Antiqua Austria lutenist Hubert Hoffmann is responsible both for the musicological research and for the performance.

When he visited the Benedictine Abbey of Kremsmünster in Upper Austria some years ago to look at the lutes stored in the abbey archives, Hoffman could not guess that this would radically change his life as a lutenist: “I learnt that the writer of tablatures I discovered was a member of the abbey named Pater Ferdinando (Fischer). It soon turned out that much of the music set down by this scribe was not to be found in the numberless lute manuscripts from this period scattered around the world. These were unique manuscripts. Moreover, they contained quite extraordinary works of striking compositional quality: new lute music in the form of cyclical poems of a lute enthusiast at the turn of the 17th/18th centuries.”

Hubert Hoffmann, a member of Austria’s leading early music ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria, pursues a wide-ranging career as a continuo player with numerous period instrument ensembles worldwide. His fascination for the unique blend of lute music for the Habsburg Courts is reflected in his solo projects, in which he aims to shed light upon this neglected niche in baroque lute music. These include the first recording of Wenzel Ludwig Radolt’s important 1701 collection of lute concertos ‘Die allertreueste Freindin’ and the music of the Vienna lutenist Karl Kohaut, both issued on Challenge Classics.