One or more of these 1995 thru 1997 recordings have been, and/or still are, available separately. NCA has conveniently and, it must be said, quite elegantly repackaged them in a handsomely appointed foldout set. The first disc in this set, the op. 56 quintets, was reviewed as far back as 10 years ago by John Bauman in 23:6 in all of three brief paragraphs. Franz Danzi, (1763-1826) an almost exact contemporary of Beethoven, perhaps deserves a bit more than that, but frankly, not a lot more. He got it in 31:3 from Steven E. Ritter who reviewed a three-CD BIS set of Danzi's complete wind quintets performed on modern instruments by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet that were recorded half-a-dozen years earlier than these NCA releases.

In the vinyl era, domestic Schoeck boomlets happened at intervals of a decade or more, while CD days have seen a few reissues and fewer notable new recordings. The simultaneous appearance of the Elegie and Notturno (ECM 2061) the ripest of Schoeck’s song cycles with Chris Walton’s eminently Read more Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works (University of Rochester Press, 2009), raises the possibility of the composer becoming a vibrant presence. Good luck. The current production illustrates why viable work too often gets lost in the shuffle.

Saxony's Court Orchestra was for many years the working sphere of influential composers known far beyond her borders. Maria Antonia Walpurgis, wife of Friedrich Christian, Elector of Saxony was especially active during the years of her regency with generous and skillful sponsoring of the arts and artists. Works by Ferrandini, her teacher for composition, harpsichord and singing, or Porpora (teacher of Carlo Broschi, the castrato better known as Farinelli), whom she engaged as a second singing teacher at the Dresden Court, convey a lively impression of those times.

Die Hamburger Ratsmusik: ein Ensemble mit 500-jähriger Geschichte. Dieser Gegensatz reizt zum kreativen Dialog zwischen Tradition und Gegenwart, von Alter Musik und lebendiger Interpretation. Die Anfänge der Hamburger Ratsmusik reichen zurück bis ins 16. Jahrhundert. Nach dem Grundsatz „Gott zu Ehren und Hamburg zur Lust, Ergötzlichkeit und Nutz“ leistete sich die Stadt ein Eliteensemble von acht Ratsmusikern, das vielen fürstlichen Hofkapellen Konkurrenz machen konnte.