Carl Ditters Von Dittersdorf Ester Oratorio (ferenc Szekeres) (1987)

This project has not been driven by the wish to add yet another complete recording of complete works to the catalogue. What it has been driven by is a real desire to redress the balance and to ensure Weber's compositions receive the attention they so richly deserve.

Three attractive and lively concertos by two exact 18th-century contemporaries (they were both born in 1739) the Viennese Dittersdorf and the Bohemian Vanhal who on at least one occasion played string quartets with Mozart and Haydn. (Haydn and Dittersdorf played violins; Mozart played viola; Vanhal the cello.) This seems to be the only recorded pairing of the two Dittersdorf concertos.

The Fifth volume in a very compelling series covering the huge flowering of composing talent that originated in Bohemia in the period preceding and contemporaneous to Haydn and Mozart. These composers laid the groundwork for the masterpieces that ensued and each one has a unique creative voice.

London-based period instrument ensemble, The Amadè Players, with their artistic director and conductor Nicholas Newland, make their commercial recording debut on the Resonus Classics label with this innovative and fascinating programme of works from unjustly neglected composers of the early classical era.

Described in the notes as "comprehensively forgotten," Peter von Winter was born three years before and died two years before Ludwig van Beethoven. He started as a member of the Mannheim Orchestra when that ensemble was creating the Classical style and he became the kapellmeister of the Munich Court and was later made a Knight. When he died, the streets were lined with people in mourning as his coffin was carried through the city to the cemetery. And with his internment, the music of Peter von Winter fell into oblivion and his reputation faded into obscurity.

“this DVD brings compelling accounts of the master at work, visually as well as aurally. There is a powerful intensity to the Beethoven overtures and the opening of William Tell is beautifully done, with glorious playing from the Berliners…There is plenty of fascinating archival material to see; and within the maestro's obviously glamorous, jet-set lifestyle, he emerges as a musical communicator of warmth - and humour too. A most revealing issue.” (The Penguin Guide)