Haydn: Divertimento in C major, Hob.II:14

In the early sixties the clarinettist Dieter Klöcker founded the CONSORTIUM CLASSICUM – a German chamber music ensemble - which not only cultivated the standard repertory, but also brought back to life rediscovered musical masterworks. The instrumentation of these works includes wind instruments only as well as the combination of woodwinds and strings up to a nonette. The members of the Ensemble are all soloists, professors from music academies and leaders from first class orchestras, who uphold the Ensemble´s concept in a very individual and consistent manner. International appearances in concerts, honourable awards and invitations to famous festivals - including the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Festival and the Berlin festival etc. - as well as numerous records, radio and TV productions, all go to confirm the extraordinary status of this unique ensemble.

Haydn Sinfonietta Wien and Manfred Huss have possibly done more than any other performers when it comes to spreading the music of Haydn’s earliest years, resurrecting scores which for decades and even centuries have been lying forgotten in archives.

Previous collections have included the 6-disc set of Scherzandi, Baryton Octets and Lira Concerti (BISCD1796/98) and the 2-disc set of the complete overtures (BISCD1818). Forming a worthy finale to this series of re-releases, the present set of five discs includes all of the extant early Divertimenti by Haydn: works composed in the 1750s and 60s for ensembles of winds and strings in various combinations and typically scored for between 5-9 players.