Carl Stamitz’s Clarinet Quartets Op. 8 and Op. 19 are amongst the earliest compositions for clarinet and string trio and document the increasing significance of the clarinet in the second half of the 18th century. These quartets demonstrate Stamitz’s profound understanding of the instrument and also allow an illuminating insight into his idiom. With his sensitive interpretations, Arthur Campbell emphasises the cantabile quality of the clarinet, which dominates all the quartets recorded on this SACD.

A thoroughly democratic balance of forces is evident in 'Music at the Court of Mannheim', a distinct and adventurous foray into early classical repertoire heralding Harnoncourt's debut recording for Teldec; a legendary career itself was born in the alert strains of these pioneering works.

Though much of his life was devoted to opera, Dittersdorf was obviously a string player at heart; and no eighteenth-century string player could get far without writing a fair ration of concertos. Nor did the concertos have to be exclusively for the violin. Vivaldi might not have been much impressed, but the rest of us can take joy in Dittersdorf's more eccentric choices of soloist from time to time. A bass concerto, for example! Here is something for the library, as Hörtnagel steers his rather broad-beamed ship through previously uncharted channels, disclosing in the process some uncannily in-tune double stopping, as well as some resourceful and effective harmonics (and as well an occasional difference of opinion with the conductor about suitable tempo).

Wolfram Christ can be a boring performer (witness a deadpan Berlioz Harold in Italy with Maazel), but these works seem to suit him perfectly. The J.C. Bach Concerto (is *that* really J.C. Bach???) is quite splashy, especially witness the final movement. It's very exciting, and definitely worth exploring, with a tuneful first movement, and a lovely second. The first theme of I comes back to haunt in III, making it a "cyclical" work.

As the predecessors of Sony Classical, CBS Masterworks had not a catalogue of ""authenticity-minded"" recordings (the pioneering efforts of Raymond Leppard and Jean-Claude Malgoire notwithstanding), Sony made a distinctive new start and engaged indubitably one of the most experienced producers in the field of early music, Wolf Erichson. If the successes secured by such musicians as Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Frans Brüggen in the 1960s were the most visible signs to a wider audience of thorough-going change in the interpretation of music from medieval to baroque times, there was no doubt in assigning a part of the general success to the work of the production teams behind the recordings.