Manfred Cordes is the initiator and artistic director of his new project “Music from Old Hanseatic Cities” with the Europaisches Hanse-Ensemble. Cordes’s special affinity for North German music, his interest in the history of the Hanseatic League as a network operating throughout Europe, and his commitment to the professionalisation of young musicians resulted in the idea for a project that combines all these aspects. Now Vol.1 is available with works from old Stralsund by Johann Vierdanck, Eucharius Hoffmann and Caspar Movius. There are sacred concertos, some with choral and soloistic alternations between a lush instrumental choir of violins, tines and trombones and four singers, but there are also demanding capricci, canzoni and sonatas. Often the compositions bear dedications to councillors from Stralsund – still a city of cultural exchange, a city of trade and Baltic meetings.