When Sylvius Leopold Weiss died (in 1750, the year of Bach’s death), he was eulogised as Europe’s greatest lutenist and one of Germany’s best musicians. The Sonata in B flat major is one of the first to use the full range of the 13-course lute, said to have been developed by Weiss himself. The Sonata in F sharp minor, one of his latest works, is his only sonata in this unusually expressive key, so important to the French lutenists of the 17th century. Perhaps as a tribute to these earlier lutenists, Weiss chose this key for one of his most beautiful, complex works.