Georg Friedrich Händel:
Ouverture from Siroe, Re di Persia HWV 24
‘Ajamlar (Persian musicians):
Pishrow in maqâm Neyshâbur & osul Chanbar
Marin Marais:
L’Arabesque from IV. Livre (Paris 1717)
‘Ajamlar (Persian musicians):
Pishrow Golestân in maqâm Panjgâh & osul Doyek
Tombak improvisation
Georg Philipp Telemann:
Marche en Persien from Miriways TWV 21:24 (Scena XII)
Demetrius Cantemir:
Pishrow in maqâm Bozorg & osul Zarbeyn
Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer:
Zaide, reine de Grenadel
Santur improvisation in maqâm Hejâz-‘Ozzâl
Anonymous composer:
Pishrow in maqâm ‘Ozzâl & osul Fâkhte
Marin Marais:
Marche Persane dite la Savigny from V. Livre (Paris 1725)
Le Tourbillon from IV. Livre (Paris 1717)
Târ pre-composed taqsim in maqâm Nahâvand-e Kabir
‘Abdolqâder Marâghi (14th–15th c.):
Naqsh in maqâm Nahâvand-e Kabir & osul Dowr-e Ravân
Henry Purcell:
Distressed Innocence or The Princess of Persia Z. 577

In the Baroque era, European society turned its gaze to foreign countries in the Orient, with Persia exerting a particular

fascination that was not necessarily anthropological in nature. Foreign countries and figures made it possible, for example

in Montesquieu's famous Lettres Persanes (1721), to express and disseminate the new Enlightenment ideas, such as

criticism of absolutism, under the guise of the exotic. However, music was less philosophical or anthropological: Persian

themes tended to provide a special “kick” in opera or instrumental music. Gambist Simone Eckert presents such works

with Persian subjects with her Hamburger Ratsmusik on the new album Persian & Baroque and has teamed up with the

Neoclassical Ensemble of Tehran for this. This formation, under the direction of musicologist Arash Mohafez, specializes

in Persian music that has been passed down in ancient manuscripts, while traditional Persian musicians and ensembles

usually play music that has been passed down orally and whose origins only go back to the 19th century. The

Neoclassical Ensemble complements the baroque program with classical Persian pieces from surviving manuscripts from

the 17th and 18th centuries. The special feature of the cooperation between these two formations is that both the

European baroque repertoire and the Persian classical repertoire are shared by the ensembles.