In 1692, aged 16, he performed for the Landgrave Ernst Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, who engaged him for his court.
The landgrave then sent him for further study in Paris, under the two leading composer-performers of the day, Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray.
[1] Hesse then toured as a virtuoso throughout Europe, becoming friends with Johann Mattheson and George Frideric Handel, and possibly studied under Antonio Vivaldi in Mantua.
[1] On Easter Sunday, 8 April 1708, in Rome, it was most likely Hesse who played the demanding viola da gamba solo part at the premiere of Handel's oratorio La resurrezione (HWV 47) under Arcangelo Corelli.
His son Ludwig Christian Hesse [de] (1716–1772) also became a prominent gambist who worked alongside Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who wrote pieces for him.