Sylvius Leopold Weiss was the greatest and most influential lutenist of his time. He composed over six hundred works, was one of the best-paid musicians at the court of Augustus the Strong in Dresden and was regarded as an outstanding improviser. “With AN SYLVIUS, I am expressly not attempting a historical reconstruction of Weiss’s art. Rather, I am interested in a hermeneutic approach, a lively, profound experience of baroque music, which I hope will gain immediate power and sensuality through free contemporary improvisation. From music by Weiss, Bach and their contemporaries and my own free improvisations, I create suites that are always composed in new constellations. All music comes from us humans and is therefore only one thing: an image, a reflection of life. So when I turn free play, guided solely by spontaneous intuition, into baroque movements, the contemporary and the historical text mutually fertilize each other. That is my risk and my hope. When Adorno writes: “Before Schubert’s music, the tear falls from the heart without first questioning the soul”, he formulates a quality that I would like to see in all music. AN SYLVIUS is an attempt to come as close to this wish as I can.” Marc Sinan in May 2011