Otmar Suitner

Issued without accompanying notes, we are asked to take it on faith that these recordings made by Otmar Suitner with the Dresden Staatskapelle are in fact legendary. But while most of the performances here have not been released on compact discs, that does not necessarily make them legendary; it only makes them rare.

Otmar Suitner was archetypical of the type of Central European conductor who comes up through the ranks (i.e., opera house, theater, or if an instrumentalist, house orchestra) and worked his way up to leadership by dint of musicality. Some move on to what is essentially international "stardom," such as the case with Karajan or Klemperer.

After the wars with the Ottoman Empire, the Turks – their dress, manners, and music-fascinated 18th century Europe, and poking fun at them became standard fare in Parisian vaudevilles. Gluck picked up the theme in 1761 after he became conductor of the French Opera in Vienna, using a translated French libretto by P.R. Monnier that had already been set to music by Monsigny. La Cadi Dupée ("The Duped Cadi") was believed lost until it was rediscovered in the archives of the Hamburg State Opera by the producer of this recording. The central character is a Cadi (a Muslim judge) who wants to marry the reluctant Zelmire, to the dismay of his wife Fatime. Zelmire, in love with Nuradin, pretends to be Omega, the unattractive daughter of the dyer Omar; after the marriage contract is signed and Omega appears, the Cadi has to buy his way out of the imbroglio and return contritely to Fatime while Zelmire and Nuradin go off happily.

The Symphony No. 1 in C minor, B. 9, subtitled The Bells of Zlonice (Czech: Zlonické zvony), was composed by Antonín Dvořák during February and March 1865. The work is written in the early Romantic style, and was inspired by the works of Ludwig van Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn.It was the only one of his symphonies that Dvořák never heard performed or had a chance to revise. The work was lost shortly after its composition, and did not come to light until 1923, almost 20 years after the composer's death. It did not receive its first performance until 1936.

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the main Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to international consciousness, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana did in Bohemia.