The Baroque lute was a very popular instrument among the European aristocracy at the beginning of the 17th century, and remained as such for more than 150 years. Documents, letters, music scores, editions of manuscripts and paintings of those times show how the lute spread in the Baroque European space. It was back then, around 1700, when a collection of manuscripts with songs for lute was discovered, which were kept for more than two centuries in Berlin and discovered and researched in 1918 by Austrian musicologist Adolf Koczirz. At the moment, the original scores can be found at the University of Melbourne's Music Library; they were published for the first time in 2013.

At the beginning of 2023, on February 3rd, the pieces included in the above-mentioned collection were recorded for the first time in history by Bernhard Hofstötter, one of the most valued lute artists worldwide. The album, which was recorded by the German labeling house TyxArt Records, includes the works of musicians such as Esaias Reusner, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer and Germain Pinel, as well as a few works written by anonymous composers, beautifully and masterfully interpreted by Bernhard Hofstötter, who wraps the lute in polyphonic sounds and outstanding tone colors. Bernhard Hofstötter was born in Vienna in 1975. Before consecrating himself to the Baroque lute, the musician was a violinist, who studied Law at universities in Vienna, Oslo and St. Gallen. At the same time, he refined his skills at Conservatories in Vicenza and Vienna, studying lute with Luciano Conti. He performed recitals in well-known halls across Austria, such as Konzerthaus (Vienna) and Mozarteum (Salzburg), as well as other stages across Europe and Japan. Bernhard Hofstötter has launched 10 albums so far, his albums covering pieces composed by Ernst Gottlieb Baron, Silvius Leopold Weiss, Ludovico Roncalli and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer.