The Berliner Baroque Soloists under the direction of Rainer Kussmaul are one of the most renowned specialists of the early music.

Their recordings have been awarded several times with the Echo classic award. This-3 CD set includes PHIL06003 Vivaldi Concerti, PHIL06008 Edicson Ruiz and PHIL06018 Zelenka and Telemann.

This set includes masterpieces of Antonio Vivaldi: the famous Four Seasons with Rainer Kussmaul on the solo violin, the Cello Concerto in B minor, RV424, with Georg Faust, the Viola d'amore Concerto in A minor, RV397, with Wolfram Christ, and the Concerto for oboe and violin in B flat major, RV548, with Jonathan Kelly as soloists.

Aged only fifteen, Edicson Ruiz was awarded first prize at the International Society of Bassists' competition in Indianapolis, making him the youngest winner of all time. Just two years later he was made a member of the Berlin Philharmonic's double bass section, becoming not only the first Latin American musician to be so honoured but also the youngest ever in the history of the orchestra. Conductor Christian Vasquez is a protégé of the internationally known Venezuelan 'Sistema' and has already established himself as one of the most promising developing talents from the Americas. His debut as a conductor with the Simon Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela took place in April 2008 in Caracas conducting Mahler's Symphony no.2.

The music sounds like a sonic allegory on transience and futility, just like the elapsing of time or the dwindling vitality. The 'festive baroque' demonstrates a delicate sensorium for the downsides of earthly pleasures.

'Vanitas vanitatum!' (Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!) - Jan Dismas Zelenka