The works selected for inclusion here each share a common feature; they represent the earliest efforts by two foremost masters of the Classical period in the genre of Concerto and Symphony. We have here two of Mozart’s earliest essays in solo concerto form, while from Haydn, whose prodigious output of symphonies number from 1 to 104, there are an additional early pair that have come to light in comparatively recent times. A special feature of these performances is that a bassoon has been used to double the bass-line throughout - and that uniquely it is from this instrument that they are all directed. 

 

These days many recordings that purport to have been made on ’original instruments’ have in fact been made on modern reproductions. On this record we can savour the sound of an authentic ’period’ instrument built around the turn of the 18th and 19th century by Kaspar Tauber (1758 - 1831), a distinguished maker active in Vienna from before 1794; some thirty of his bassoons and contrabassoons are preserved today. These performances will be found to demonstrate how the addition of a ’period’ bassoon to the orchestral tutti will unobtrusively lend a subtle element of body and clarity to the bass line.