Werner Ehrhardt and Concerto Köln's recordings of the symphonies of Joseph Martin Kraus, originally released as two separate discs on the Capriccio label in the early '90s, helped lead the charge for the reintegration of Kraus into the classical canon. By 2009, when these Concerto Köln are being reintroduced on the Phoenix Edition label as a single, two-disc set, Kraus has become one of the most frequently recorded late eighteenth century composers whose name isn't Haydn, Beethoven, or Mozart. While some of these ...
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Werner Ehrhardt and Concerto Köln's recordings of the symphonies of Joseph Martin Kraus, originally released as two separate discs on the Capriccio label in the early '90s, helped lead the charge for the reintegration of Kraus into the classical canon. By 2009, when these Concerto Köln are being reintroduced on the Phoenix Edition label as a single, two-disc set, Kraus has become one of the most frequently recorded late eighteenth century composers whose name isn't Haydn, Beethoven, or Mozart. While some of these performances are not as snappy and alert as those for Naxos by Petter Sundkvist and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, they still pack a punch. Ehrhardt's reading of the Sinfonia da chiesa is superb as he grasps its near Brucknerian sense of architectonics and his Symphonie funčbre is appropriately grim, hushed, restrained, and patient. Both of these are on the first disc of the set, and it's still true, as when these were single Capriccio issues, that the second disc (now reordered as first) is a...
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