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Premiered in 1841, Adolphe Adam’s Giselle stands as one of the most important French dance creations – a rare masterpiece of lyric theatre that is particularly renowned for the extraordinary beauty of its music. This compilation is dedicated to highlights of the fantastical ballet, performed by one of music’s most iconic conductor-orchestra partnerships: Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Set in Rhineland in the Middle Ages, the work takes its name from the peasant girl Giselle, who falls in love with a young Duke as he wanders the German landscape.

Complications arise when we discover that Albrecht, who has passed himself off as a simple lad to Giselle, is already engaged, and after his fiancée Bathilde arrives to confirm this, the peasant girl dances herself into madness and dies. In the second act, the scene shifts to the spirit world of the Wilis – vengeful ghosts of brides who, jilted before their wedding day, prey on young men by dancing them to their death. Although Hilarion, a long-standing admirer of Giselle, falls victim to their enchantment, Giselle – now herself a Wili – uses her love for Albrecht to protect him from the same fate.

Realising that she has saved him,Albrecht breaks down into tears at her grave. Adam was a prolific ballet writer at the height of his powers when composing Giselle, and his innate feeling for dramatic progression is perfectly mirrored in the work’s wealth of orchestral colour – which ranges from brilliantly sparkling to darkly dynamic, according to the developments on stage. Paying close attention to the ballet’s individual instrumental sonorities, Marriner brilliantly evokes the dichotomy between everyday life and the otherworldliness of the second act to deliver a first-rate performance of this iconic work.

Hugo Alfvén remains one of the best-loved of Swedish Romantic composers. He was especially drawn to the possibilities of the orchestra, and considered his first four symphonies to be his most important works, though he also described the first movement of the Fifth, with characteristic modesty, as ‘the least bad thing I have written’. His music is distinguished by orchestral subtlety and by a painterly exploitation of harmony and timbre. Even the abstract works such as the symphonies are coloured by the water and light of the Swedish archipelago, but he also composed a set of Swedish Rhapsodies which are included here.

This release from Brilliant Classics provides new insight into 19th-century relations between Europe and the Ottoman Empire. At this time, Turkish music permeated European classical music. Compositions like Mozart’s Alla Turca, janissary music by Spohr, and Haydn’s Military Symphony (No. 100) are undeniable proof of this.

Europeans composers such as Adelburg and Guatelli Pasha actually brought their music to the Ottoman Empire. Adelburg was born in Istanbul, but left for Vienna in later life. Pasha (18181-1900) became the director of music at the imperial Ottoman court in Istanbul. The confluence of these two styles makes for a very unusual record indeed.

These delightful concertos, pleasing in themselves, always fresh and full of invention, also provide a fascinating aural link between the Barock and Classical eras. It was of course C.P.E’s father, Johann Sebastian, who had visited the Prussian court of Frederick the Great, and been fated there for both his keyboard and compositional virtuosity: not the least result of which was his later masterpiece of chamber music, The Musical Offering, which subjects a theme originally devised by Frederick (or a more complex version of it) to endless contrapuntal variation. Perhaps as a result of that trip, C.P.E. secured a place at Frederick’s court, though when he arrived the welcome was not as warm as his father’s: Frederick, as a keen and by no means unskilled flute player, prized Joachhim Johann Quantz as ‘his’ favourite composer, not least because Quantz was especially expert in playing and writing music for the instrument in question.

Nothing loth, C.P.E. set to and fulfilled his duties, and with something of his father’s unbending will: perhaps another reason why he never found favour at the court. Two of the concertos on this disc were originally written for the court’s oboists, but they sit equally well within the compass of the flute when sympathetically transcribed.

This CD presents the 4 symphonies that Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote during his stay in Hamburg. In these large-scale works the string section is extended with 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 horns and bassoon, instruments which are treated quasi olistically, so that one can almost speak of a Sinfonia Concertante.

The musical language is clearly “Sturm und Drang”, full of vehement dynamics and changes of sentiment, the fingerprint of this most famous son of Johann Sebastian.

Brilliant performances on period instruments by Solamente Naturali, an exciting group of early music players from Bratislava.

C.P.E. Bach’s two surviving oboe concertos both began as keyboard concertos that were later transcribed for oboe; their intended performer was probably Johann Christian Fischer, a virtuoso based in Potsdam in the mid 1760s. This would perhaps account for their technical and immensely challenging solo lines, which suggest that, like his father, Carl Philipp Emmanuel revelled in pushing instruments and performers to their limits.

The highpoints of both concertos are their slow movements, which feature music of such beauty and chromatic melancholy – achieve by muting the oboe with sheep’s wool – that the emotion is profoundly moving. The concertos are complemented by the Pastorale in A minor and Sonata in G minor. Although the Pastorale is of uncertain authorship and may have been composed by C.P.E Bach’s brother Wilhelm Friedemann, the Sonata can be dated to the mid 1730s.

Like the concertos, this work has a highly effective slow movement, in this case the opening movement, containing music of great beauty and high emotional charge. A fast movement follows, and the work concludes with a virtuosic set of variations.

The most successful of Baroque composers were highly sensitive to the prevailing musical fashions of their day, effortlessly moving from style to style to satisfy listeners, performers and patrons. In his four orchestral suites, Bach turned his hand to one of the two main musical genres in 18th-century Europe -- the suite, the French counterpart to the Italian Concerto.

Beyond mere commercial awareness, however, Bach's suites convey a deep understanding of musical character and instrumental colour. An abundance of different moods and forms are explored: in addition to the grand French overtures that open each suite, the traditional dance movements that follow display great variety, with the Gavotte, Bourrée, Sarabande, Menuet and the more unusual Polonaise and Forlane all making an appearance. Bach's rich and varied approach to orchestration also comes to the fore, contributing to each work's individual charm: Suite No.2, for instance, is characterised by its prominent and often virtuosic solo flute part, while Nos. 3 and 4 owe their festive mood to the three trumpets and timpani.

Although Bach wrote just four works in this genre, his contributions reveal the full extent of his compositional skill, and are an essential part of his oeuvre. Here, they are performed by the Consort of London, an ensemble who have received much critical praise for their interpretations of Bach's music.

Other information:

- One of the few complete recordings of the 4 orchestral suites on one CD.

- The performances by The Consort of London, conducted by Robert Haydon Clark, combine the security and brilliance of modern instruments, while adhering to the principles of the Historically Informed Performance Practice. Excellent recordings from the London Henry Wood Hall.

- Recorded in 1990 in Henry Wood Hall, London.

- Includes comprehensive booklet notes by Clemens Romijn.